- IDA17’s four themes—climate change, gender, fragile and conflict-affected states and inclusive growth—enhance IDA’s ability to provide catalytic finance and knowledge services to country clients.
- Inclusive Growth speaks to the need to maintain growth momentum in IDA countries while ensuring that the opportunities and benefits of growth are broadly distributed throughout the population, including the poorest and most ii disadvantaged groups. IDA 17 devotes special attention to three important channels for inclusive growth: (1) job creation; (2) financial inclusion; and (3) natural resource wealth.
- Gender. While IDA countries are making progress in gender equality (e.g., increasing girls’ enrollment), more needs to be done in particular to reduce maternal mortality and boost women’s economic empowerment. Building on the progress made in IDA16, managers will raise the bar on gender integration in IDA’s work at the country, regional and corporate levels, with a special focus on the economic sectors which have been lagging and yet are particularly important for women’s economic empowerment.
- Climate Change. There is an urgent need and increasing demand from IDA countries to reduce the vulnerability of people, their assets and livelihoods to climate-related risks. The coming decade provides an opportunity for IDA countries to develop in a way that is fully resilient to the risks of climate change and natural hazards. It is estimated that enhancing the resilience of investments in IDA countries will add about 25-30% to the costs of development, with the largest increase being in sub-Saharan Africa and small island states. Strengthened institutional capacity will also be necessary, especially in low-income IDA countries, to address climate change challenges. In this context, IDA17 further strengthens climate and disaster risk management in country strategies and programs and enhances monitoring and reporting of IDA resources used for climate change mitigation and adaptation.
- Fragile and Conflict-Affected States. Over the past few years, IDA has made significant progress in enhancing its operational and financial support to fragile and conflict-affected states. IDA 17 includes more flexible operational policies related to fragile and conflict-affected states, incentives for qualified staff to work in these states, strengthened collaboration with IFC and MIGA, and an overhaul of IDA’s allocation framework to better respond to emerging opportunities.
- Special Themes for IDA17
