This chapter chronicles the ongoing transition toward a new portfolio of IBRD/IDA trust funds based on fewer and larger Umbrella 2.0 Programs. It provides an update on progress and showcases several early movers. Initial lessons learned are helping to inform the transition process and paving the way to roll out the reform across the World Bank.
OBJECTIVES AND PRINCIPLES OF UMBRELLA 2.0 PROGRAMS
The IBRD/IDA trust fund reform aims to reduce fragmentation and its cornerstone is organizing the trust fund portfolio around a limited number of Umbrella 2.0 Programs. They are strongly aligned with the World Bank's priorities, and seek to enhance leverage of development resources by strengthening integration with the Bank’s institutional strategy, planning, budgeting, and staffing processes. They will also contribute to reducing transactions costs for the Bank, development partners, and clients to achieve better results on the ground and improve development effectiveness and impact for client countries.
Each umbrella program is anchored by a primary multidonor trust fund (MDTF) and, in some cases, may include associated trust funds. The anchor MDTF is a programmatic trust fund with a relatively broad thematic or geographic scope. Development partners who are interested in supporting a specific theme or geographic area have options to steer their contributions in the anchor MDTF accordingly. Umbrella 2.0 Programs are not “one size fits all” and can accommodate situations where development partners are unable to contribute to the main MDTF due to their internal policies or regulations that require dedicated financial reporting to track their contributions. Such situations are handled by establishing separate trustee trust funds, called associated trust funds, that support specific activities listed in the respective Administration Agreements. In all cases, the anchor MDTF and the associated trust funds retain common governance, results framework, and reporting in the new umbrella program.
The implementation of new Umbrella 2.0 Programs will enhance the Bank’s partnership with development partners on many fronts: responsiveness, preferencing, and visibility. All will explicitly emphasize visibility to partners.
The status of Trust Fund Reform and Umbrella 2.0 Programs: Interview with Dirk Reinermann, Director, Trust Funds and Partner Relations, The World Bank Group
Link: https://youtu.be/aQQlxmXp2hw
Interview with Charlotte De Fontaubert, Program Manager PROBLUE, The World Bank Group
Link: https://youtu.be/hFhjttJqU3w
Interview with Rohit Khanna, Program Manager ESMAP, The World Bank Group
Link: https://youtu.be/IZ84r_s-ar0