World Bank

AID TRANSPARENCY ANALYSIS

The World Bank is the largest donor reporting to the DAC, spending over USD 27bn in 2012. The World Bank Group comprises five institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

The 2014 ATI assesses the transparency of two World Bank Group institutions: IDA and IFC. The World Bank started publishing information to the IATI Registry for IDA and IBRD in April 2011. Although the IFC coordinates its activities with other World Bank Group institutions, it is legally and financially independent.

The World Bank Group has been a leading advocate for open development, open finances and knowledge sharing. The World Bank’s Open Data Initiative which started in 2010 focuses on the provision of free, accessible tools to explore the Bank’s open data and research and knowledge databases. Its open data portal, World Bank Group Finances, brings together financial data from IBRD, IDA and the IFC, providing raw, open data for analysis and visualisation. The World Bank’s Mapping for Results initiative has been formally integrated with the Projects and Operations Portal. In addition, the World Bank’s open data country pages integrate with both World Bank Finances and the Projects and Operations Portal, improving the coherence between the various open data portals for users.

As a member of the IATI Steering Committee, the World Bank is represented by its Operation Policy and Country Services (OPCS) network unit, which supports the development of World Bank policy and strategy and leads on its corporate priorities. Several open development workstreams operate under the Leadership Learning and Innovation (LLI) Vice Presidency (formerly, the World Bank Institute), which supports the World Bank’s operational work. The Bank has partnered with OGP to support member countries across regions, as well as countries seeking to join the Partnership, with financial and technical assistance for the drafting and implementation of national action plans. In addition, the World Bank is also facilitating knowledge exchanges among participating countries so that successful experiences on open government practices can be more quickly adopted. The Bank also acts as the secretariat for the Open Aid Partnership, a multi-stakeholder partnership that aims to build the capacities of partner countries to collect and publish open data and of citizens to understand it. In May 2014, the World Bank established an Advisory Council to guide the development and implementation of a Strategic Framework for Mainstreaming Citizen Engagement in World Bank Group Operations, a follow up to World Bank Group Strategy commitment to increase citizen engagement for improved results.

Of the two World Bank institutions assessed, IDA performs well, as in previous years, coming seventh out of 68 organisations, and moving into the very good category. The IFC ranks 39^th, placing it in the poor category. Although the IFC has been publishing information on its investment and advisory services to the World Bank Finances platform since April 2013, IDA achieves a significant lead over IFC in the Index due to its comprehensive publication to IATI, meaning that information from IDA is more comparable with other providers.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The World Bank should continue to champion aid transparency. All members of the World Bank Group should work together to ensure that the entire World Bank Group development portfolio is published to IATI.
The World Bank should use its aid information in its programming and coordination processes and promote the access and use of this information by others.