The World Bank offers a limited number of grants to assist development projects, grants that are designed to encourage innovation, co-operation between organizations and to increase local stakeholders' participation in projects. Some grants are funded from the bank's administrative budget and are funded directly. The bank also administers or manages other grant funds for donors through partnerships and trust funds. All grant funds are housed under the Development Grant Facility (DGF), where the bank integrates its overall strategy, allocations and management of grant-making activities under a single umbrella mechanism. To learn more about global and regional programs that have received World Bank funds through the DGF, visit DGF Financed Programs.
Described below are some of the mechanisms and programs through which the bank and its partners distribute grants to support development projects, reduce poverty, build capacity, address global and regional challenges and support the efforts of civil society organizations.
Mechanisms and Programs
Co-financing Co-financing refers to the association of bank funds or guarantees with funds provided by third parties for a particular project or program. The largest sources of co-financing for bank-assisted operations are either donor government agencies or multilateral financial institutions, such as the UK's Department of Institutional Development and the Inter-American Development Bank.
Development Marketplace Promoting innovation, the Development Marketplace (DM) is a partnership of various donor groups and investors in the development community and local entrepreneurs to find creative solutions to poverty reduction and development. The primary means for identifying and investing in potential projects is through global and country/regional marketplaces or competitions. Problem-solving entrepreneurs with innovative, poverty fighting ideas compete annually for early-stage seed money to promote small-scale development projects intended to bring concrete benefits to their communities. The winners of the competitions are then linked with partners who have the resources to help them implement their proposals. Since 1998, the DM has invested more than $34M in over 800 projects from around the globe.
Foundation Partnerships Foundations are critical to development as pioneers in supporting social change and cutting-edge research, engaging civil society, and in addressing issues of exclusion, the environment, post conflict resolution, education and health. They bring in-country knowledge of civil society groups and local community based organizations and their capabilities; technical expertise; start up funds for pilot projects; and can participate in co-financing of projects. Such partnerships can link foundation grant resources to the bank's lending; target those resources to non-bank recipients; and apply them at country or community levels. Foundations can also assist the bank to mobilize external technical and financial resources; identify business process innovations; and build a broader constituency for global interdependence.
Global Environment Facility (GEF) The World Bank is one of three implementing agencies in this international mechanism for providing grants to achieve global environmental benefits in climate change, biodiversity, international waters and ozone-layer depletion. GEF grant co-financing is available under four main categories for environmental projects that address the four categories. The first point of contact for most government officials, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other local partners interested in GEF support are the bank's country offices and regional missions.
infoDev The Information for Development Program (infoDev) works to promote better understanding and effective use of information and communication technologies (ICT) as tools of poverty reduction and broad-based, sustainable development. Housed at the World Bank, infoDev supports its activities with a variety of small grants for applied research, monitoring and evaluation, capacity building, and knowledge sharing activities.
Japan Policy and Human Resources Development Fund (PHRD) One of the largest grant funds created in partnership with the World Bank, the PHRD fund is recognized for making a unique contribution to member countries' capacity building efforts. It supports five main programs: technical assistance; graduate master's degree scholarships; capacity development; extended term consultancies for Japanese nationals at the bank; and the Japan-World Bank Partnership. The fund supports other vital World Bank partnership programs, as well: HIPC, CEPF, CGAP, Cities Alliance, CTF and PPIAF.
Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF) The Japan Social Development Fund (JSDF), a $250 million grant fund established by the Japanese government and the World Bank in June 2000, provides support for innovative programs that directly respond to the needs of the poorest and most vulnerable groups in society; provide rapid and demonstrable benefits, which can be sustained, to the poorest and most vulnerable groups; and build the capacity, participation and empowerment of civil society, local communities and nongovernmental organizations.
Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol In 1991, the World Bank signed an agreement with the Multilateral Fund and became one of the implementing agencies under the Montreal Protocol in the phase out activities of ozone depleting substances. The grant fund was established to help developing countries meet the costs of eliminating the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances, as agreed to in the Montreal Protocol. These substances are measured by their Ozone Depleting Potential (ODP), and their use in a variety of products penetrates all facets of daily life-refrigerators in homes; domestic, commercial and automobile air conditioning; freezers in supermarkets and transport vehicles; aerosols for hair sprays, paint and shaving cream; fire extinguishers; furniture; construction materials; insulation and automobile parts.
Small Grants Program The Small Grants Program is one of the few global programs of the World Bank that directly funds Civil Society Organizations. The program supports the organizations in their activities to enhance partnerships and promote dialogue and dissemination of information on development, focusing on civic engagement for the empowerment of marginalized and vulnerable groups. By involving citizens who are often excluded from the public arena and by increasing their capacity to influence policy and program decisions, the bank helps a broader sector of society take ownership of development initiatives. These grants are limited and usually managed through the bank's country offices.
More information about small grant resources for qualified civil society organizations is available on the Civil Society website, Bank Funds for CSOs. The Guide to Resources for NGOs and Other Organizations of Civil Society (pdf) also contains information about bank grant funds, as well as funding sources from other institutions. The guide was prepared by the bank's Small Grants Program staff in conjunction with the International Youth Foundation.
Trust Funds There are 850 active trust funds managed by the World Bank that disburse over $1 billion a year for development-related activities. Donors entrust the funds to the bank for specific objectives, such as biodiversity preservation; debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries; support for vaccination and immunization programs to reduce the incidence of communicable diseases like measles and polio; increased knowledge sharing; empowerment of local communities; and initiatives to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Visit Main Programs for links to major grants, trust funds and global programs administered or managed by the World Bank.
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