Jun 16 2010
Reuters examines the challenges facing the World Bank as it tries to secure aid for the developing world while some of the wealthiest nations are "feeling pinched themselves."
"In 2007, the World Bank collected $42 billion for the International Development Association, or IDA, the world's largest fund for the poor. To try to match that total this year, it is tapping a deeper pool of emerging market donors, promising more strenuous oversight of how the money is used and is even prepared to let fiscally strained countries stretch out installment plans," the news service writes.
Ahead of the June 16 IDA meeting in Bamako, Mali, IDA donors have "expressed interest in devoting funds to fragile states emerging from conflict, reducing maternal mortality and helping the poor cope with climate changes. There is also a push to create a permanent mechanism within IDA to help poor countries cope with future crises," Reuters writes, adding that nations' desires to give have fallen victim to "domestic budgetary needs" in the past.
Reuters notes that the upcoming meeting will be the Obama administration's first IDA negotiation. Despite the tight economic climate, "a communique by finance ministers from the Group of 20 major developed and developing nations in South Korea on June 5 pledged to work toward an 'ambitious' IDA round," according to the news service.
The article looks at some of the different strategies the World Bank is considering in order to meet aid targets while still accommodating donor countries' budget restrictions (Wroughton, 6/13).
 This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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