Multilateral Aid Review summary - International Development Association (IDA)

As the arm of the World Bank Group that supports the poorest countries, IDA is one of the largest sources of concessional financing and technical assistance to low income countries.  It committed $14bn of ODA in 2009 financial year and disbursed $9bn.

	comment
Contribution to UK development objectives	Strong
	+	Strong capacity in a range of sectors
	+	Invests significant resources in poor countries and is a critical part of the aid architecture
	+	It can demonstrate good delivery against challenging development objectives
	+	IDA is one of the top multilateral organisations for spending aid where it is needed most
	_	Has smaller presence in fragile states and performance in fragile states is weak
	_	Internal incentives (Board and staff time) are tilted towards inputs - project and loan approvals - rather than results.
	_	Weak and weakening adherence to gender policy in core IDA country operations.  Poor integration of gender issues across country portfolios
Organisational strengths	Satisfactory
	+	Adequate cost control systems to ensure costs do not inflate.  Committed to a flat budget in real terms. Financial accountability process and policies are robust.
	_	Limited incentives to generate cost savings in projects.  Staff pay mechanism leads to automatic increases.
	_	Bank perceived to be inflexible at project level with high transaction costs, unable to respond quickly when circumstances change.  Limited use of country systems.
	+	Staff of high quality. Evaluation is a core strength of the Bank with management required to respond and follow up to evaluation recommendations.
	_	Varied quality and depth of staff engagement in smaller country programmes in Africa.
	_	Internal systems do not allow funding to be easily pooled with other donors.
	+	Very strong policy and practice on disclosure making the Bank a standard bearer.
	+	Largely predictable, transparent financing and extensive financial policies.
	_	Lack of client country voice and authority in replenishment meetings and limited say on wider board issues.
Capacity for positive change	Likely
	+	Overall, demonstrates ability to continually improve on the strength of evidence of recent operational reforms.
	+	Improved performance on corporate reform and voice needed to rate this as strong performance.