Australia’s contributions to the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA)
The International Development Association (IDA) is one of the World Bank’s five development financing agencies. IDA focuses on the world’s poorest countries and provides them with low or interest-free loans, or grants, to help them meet their development needs.
A total of 78 countries are currently eligible to receive IDA resources, including 10 Pacific Island countries. There are about 2,500 active projects in 150 countries, among those 100 are in the Pacific (see the list of eligible countries here and a map of where IDA works here).
A substantial amount of IDA’s funding comes from contributions from developed country governments which are leveraged in financial markets by the Bank to fund concessional loans. Every three years, donors meet at IDA replenishment rounds and commit to providing funding.
IDA21 (2026-28) expects to raise US$100 billion, a 4.6% decrease in real terms from IDA20. Donor governments provided US$23.7 billion in contributions. The number of government donors increased from 52 countries in IDA20 to 54 in IDA21, but short of the 56 contributors to IDA19. However, the final status of both the US’s US$4 billion pledge, made by President Biden in 2024, and the UK government’s pledge of £1.9 billion remain uncertain. The final confirmation of pledges and reviews are expected at the end of 2025.
Australia ranked 17th in the IDA21 replenishment round, better by one place than IDA19 and IDA20 but well down from 12th in IDA18. Australia’s IDA21 commitment is AU$660 million (US$436.12 million) which is a 35% nominal increase on its IDA20 contribution. Much of this nominal increase was offset by the decline in value of the Australian dollar.
Read more on Australia’s IDA commitments on the Devpolicy Blog.