-- Related Links -- Middle-Income Countries Board Announces Simplification and Reduction in Loan Costs for Middle-Income Countries. Financial Services for Members Strengthening the World Bank’s Engagement with IBRD Partner Countries (pdf) Development Committee communiqué (pdf)

At a Glance

·         Over the past two decades, middle-income countries have become key players in the global arena, and the World Bank is redefining its relationship with them in support of their strong and growing role.

·         Middle Income Countries (MIC) are a diverse group by size, population, and income level – and have a range of development needs.[1] 

·         The bulk of the world’s population—five out of seven billion—and 70 percent of the world’s poor live in middle-income countries. These countries represent 30 percent of global GDP, up from 18 percent in 1990.

·         The Bank Group is working with middle-income countries to meet their specific development challenges by providing tailored assistance, drawing on an array of knowledge services and financial products.

Overview

Middle-income countries have emerged as critical drivers of the world economy, with knowledge and resources to share with other countries. Inclusive and sustainable growth and development in middle-income countries provides positive spillovers to the rest of the world in terms of poverty reduction, international financial stability, and addressing cross-border global issues, such as climate change, energy, food and water security, and international trade. Examples can be found in the WB reports China 2030: Building a Modern, Harmonious, and Creative High-Income Society and Golden Growth: Restoring the Lustre of the European Economic Model.

At the same time, MICs still have a large, unfinished development agenda and risk being “trapped” in middle-income status if they do not further their own economic, social, and structural transformation. The Bank will continue to adapt its approach to MICs to provide more flexible, responsive, and customized solutions to respond to their particular development challenges. See IBRD: Working with Countries to Achieve Development Results.

Partnering with middle-income countries as global actors

MICs are increasingly important partners in the Bank’s work to address critical cross-border and global issues, such as clean energy, environmental protection, the fight against infectious diseases, trade integration, and international financial stability. The Bank is deepening its efforts to partner with MICs at the country, regional, and global levels to address these issues, including through key fora such as the G20, APEC, and Rio+20.

Enhancing the knowledge partnership and cross-country learning

The Bank also generates knowledge and brokers knowledge exchanges in partnership with middle-income countries, including through the World Bank Institute’s South-South Facility and global programs and partnerships. The Bank is working with MICs to strategically identify opportunities for knowledge exchange. Several internal reforms are also helping to enhance the Bank’s knowledge services including providing open access to its data; linking internal and external expertise through practice groups; improving global reach and mobility; strengthening knowledge products and research; and revising incentive structures to recognize the importance of knowledge.

A range of financial services

The Bank Group is bringing together the best of its public and private sector arms (IBRD, IFC, and MIGA) to partner with middle-income countries to respond to their development, meeting specific needs by drawing on an array of financial products, which complement technical advice, knowledge, and learning services. The Bank is also adapting its business model to be more responsive, flexible, and innovative, for example streamlining investment lending processes and exploring how best to increase the use of countries’ financial management, procurement, and social and environmental systems. The Bank is also developing new instruments, such as the Program for Results, and is revising its guarantee policy to increase the use of this instrument to encourage additional private sector investment in middle-income countries.

Bank Experts: Barbara Lee, Gloria Grandolini, Stefan Koeberle, Jehan Arulpragasm

Media Contact: Melissa Fossberg, mfossberg@worldbank.org, 1-202-458-4145

Updated March 2012