Building working partnerships has been an integral part of most programs throughout the World Bank's history. International assistance organizations, civil society organizations, the business community, government agencies and others have contributed to the success of world-wide development efforts by joining the bank in shaping strategies and carrying out specific programs.
Carbon Finance The World Bank manages nine carbon funds and facilities which are marketed to government and private company investors that are vital in the expansion of the emerging carbon market: the Prototype Carbon Fund (PCF); Netherlands JI and Netherlands CDM Facilities; Community Development Carbon Fund (CDCF); BioCarbon Fund; Italian Carbon Fund; Spanish Carbon Fund; Danish Carbon Fund; and the Umbrella Carbon Facility (UCF). These funds are public or public-private partnerships managed by the World Bank as a trustee. They are operated much like a closed-end mutual fund; and funds are used to purchase greenhouse gas emission reductions from projects in the developing world or in countries with economies in transition, and pay on delivery of those emission reductions. For more information about each of these funds, visit Carbon Finance at the World Bank.
Concessionary Finance & Global Partnerships The World Bank raises funds from a variety of groups, including donor governments, foundations and private investors, to support the development goals of client countries. These partnership efforts provide opportunities for dialogue, knowledge-sharing and mobilization of resources to businesses that would normally be too small to attract investor attention. Also, the bank often partners with governments, commercial banks, export credit agencies, multilateral institutions, and private sector investors to co-finance development projects.
MIGA Partnerships The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) works with other insurers, government agencies and international organizations to increase the availability of political-risk insurance and to encourage coverage in markets where partners may not feel comfortable on their own. In addition, MIGA's Foreign Direct Investment Promotions Center works with investment promotion intermediaries, privatization agencies, business information providers, business associations and chambers of commerce to expand their investor outreach programs and disseminate investment information to interested businesses.
Privatization and Public-Private Partnerships The International Finance Corporation (IFC) offers direct technical assistance that helps establish public-private partnerships through which governments can obtain increased services under budget constraints, while benefiting from private sector expertise, management and finance; or extend the reach and quality of their public services through large-scale privatization projects.
Small and Medium Enterprises The International Finance Corporation (IFC) supports the efforts of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the private sector both by investing and by providing technical assistance and advisory services, delivered through the IFC's international or local partners, to build their capacity. Much of IFC's technical assistance work is conducted through regional, global or thematic initiatives, managed by IFC but funded through partnerships with donor governments and other multilateral institutions.
Staff Exchange Program The World Bank shares staff with partner institutions, particularly in the private sector, with the objectives of developing long-term relationships, fostering cultural exchange and jointly enhancing the skills of employees.
Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) The World Bank consults and collaborates with thousands of members of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) throughout the world-representatives of community groups, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), indigenous peoples organizations, labor unions, charitable and professional organizations, faith-based groups and foundations. Visit Partnering with Civil Society to learn about opportunities for World Bank-civil society partnerships and find out how to participate in bank-financed projects and training activities that involve these important partners in development.
Co-financiers The World Bank often leverages capital for a particular bank lending project or program with funds provided by sources outside a recipient country. These sources are typically official bilateral and multilateral agencies and foundations. The co-financiers provide mostly concessionary funding to recipient countries to fill a financing gap, while providing donor partners with a cost-effective way of extending assistance by using the bank's country experience and capacity to manage projects and programs.
Development Marketplace Promoting innovation, the Development Marketplace (DM) is a partnership of various donor groups, 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 $42M for 1,000 projects in more than 70 countries through Global Competitions, Country-Level and Regional Development Marketplaces.
Foundation Partnerships Foundation partnerships are critical to development, as foundations are 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. Foundations 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 also assist the bank to mobilize external technical and financial resources; identify business process innovations; and build a broader constituency for global interdependence.
Multilateral and Bilateral Development Agencies Find links here to multilateral and bilateral development banks, financial institutions and government development agencies from around the world that partner with the World Bank Group on projects that benefit developing countries.
Trust Fund Donors 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.
Development Grant Facility (DGF) Grant making is an integral part of the World Bank's development strategy. A limited number of grants are offered to assist development projects, which are designed to encourage innovation, co-operation and partnership between organizations and to increase local stakeholders' participation in projects. All grant funds are housed under the Development Grant Facility, where the bank integrates its overall strategy, allocations and management of grant-making activities under a single umbrella mechanism. 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. To learn more about global and regional programs that have received World Bank funds through the DGF, visit DGF Financed Programs.
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 resources allow countries to cover the incremental costs of additional actions on these global issues. 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.
Global Partnerships Found here are some examples of important global partnerships in which the World Bank participates in order to achieve the targets to reduce poverty, hunger, disease and illiteracy set out in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
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.
World Bank Institute (WBI) The World Bank Institute, a partnership for knowledge and learning, fosters a wide range of institutional partnerships. Collaborating with the bank through the WBI are 20 bilateral donors; over 100 training and content partners; more than 40 private sector and foundation partners; and 16 international, regional and national institutions. Some 60 percent of WBI activities are developed and delivered jointly with partners.
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