Trust funds are an integral part of the Bank’s financing instruments. The World Bank uses trust funds strategically to complement core funding from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and the International Development Association (IDA), and to support the achievement of its institutional goals by providing sizable financial resources to specific development priorities, regions, and thematic focus areas.
Trust funds enhance the World Bank’s capacity to support delivery of results in our client countries. They provide resources to advance work on global public goods, fragile and conflict-affected states, disaster prevention and relief, global and regional partnerships and knowledge and innovation.
Trust Fund Reform
The role of trust funds has evolved dramatically during the last few decades, and the World Bank has undertaken initiatives and reforms to continuously improve the effectiveness of trust fund resources and activities. The World Bank’s latest reform to transition the IBRD/IDA trust fund portfolio into fewer and larger Umbrella Programs aims to deliver transformative solutions for client countries and development partners through improved strategic alignment, increased efficiency, reduced fragmentation and transactions costs, and enhanced management oversight.
For our Development Partners, the reform elevates the World Bank-Donor partnership to focus on strategy, enables collective action at scale on development challenges, supports knowledge exchange, and strengthens results reporting and visibility. For clients, the reform facilitates better alignment of trust fund activities with country priorities and enables trust fund resources to be better integrated in World Bank country programs.
The IBRD/IDA trust fund reform aims to reduce fragmentation in the World Bank's trust fund portfolio. At the heart of this initiative is the streamlining of this portfolio into a limited number of larger Umbrella Programs.
