Trust funds enable one or more development partners to contribute money that is held in trust by the World Bank Group, to achieve specific development objectives. The Bank Group manages a diverse portfolio of trust funds that spans its institutions and to which more than 100 sovereign governments and their agencies, as well as philanthropic organizations, NGOs, and private entities, provide resources to support nearly every area of development worldwide.
The Bank Group uses these funds to complement its core financing and reinforce IBRD, IDA, IFC, and MIGA operations. Trust funds provide grants and highly concessional resources that help reduce borrowing costs, de-risk investments, encourage innovation, and stimulate investment in global public goods. Trust funds also add to knowledge. From fiscal year 2020–24, 64% of knowledge products and advisory services produced by the World Bank benefiting from trust fund support.
The flexible, targeted financing that trust funds provide help the Bank Group respond quickly to emergencies and extend support to people in need where access to the Bank Group’s core financing is limited or unavailable. From fiscal year 2020–24, IBRD/IDA trust funds disbursed $30.9 billion to areas of the world affected by fragility, conflict, and violence, or 83% of all IBRD/IDA trust fund recipient-executed disbursements.
Trust Fund Reform
To contribute to a more streamlined global aid architecture, the World Bank Group is working to simplify its internal operations, including reforming its trust fund portfolio and harmonizing processing. Since 2020, the IBRD/IDA trust fund portfolio has been consolidated into fewer and larger umbrella programs. This move has improved strategic alignment, increased efficiency, reduced fragmentation and transactions costs, and enhanced management oversight.
For 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 better integration of trust fund resources into World Bank country programs.
