The World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) is one of the largest and most effective platforms for fighting extreme poverty in the world’s low-income countries.   

IDA aims to reduce poverty on a livable planet by providing financing, policy advice, and knowledge for programs that boost economic growth, build resilience, and improve the lives of poor people around the world. 

IDA is a multi-issue institution and supports a range of development activities across different sectors that pave the way toward equality, economic growth, job creation, higher incomes, and better living conditions.

IDA is the world’s largest source of development finance for low-income countries. IDA lends money on concessional terms.

IDA credits have a zero or very low interest charge and repayments are stretched over 30 to 40 years.

More than half of active IDA countries receive all, or half, of their IDA resources on grant terms, which carry no repayments. Grants are targeted to low-income countries at higher risk of debt distress.  

Since 1960, IDA has provided about $533 billion for investments in 115 countries. In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2023, IDA’s commitments totaled $34.2 billion, of which $7.3 billion were grants.

In FY23, eight of IDA’s top borrowers are from Africa: Tanzania, Kenya, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Senegal.

IDA’s country-led model supports national priorities and looks beyond single issues to improve education, health, water and sanitation, agriculture, infrastructure, and institutions—the fabric of thriving societies.

We work with countries to achieve sustainable growth so they can chart their own future, free of donor support. Since 1960, 38 nations have graduated from IDA, with many returning as donors, e.g. China, Chile, India, South Korea, and Turkey.

Representatives of IDA donor governments and borrower countries come together every three years to replenish IDA’s funds and review IDA’s policies.

The replenishment process consists of negotiations that last a whole year to come up with a funding amount and themes that will be funded.

The amount of funds raised or the replenishment envelope consists of contributions from IDA donors, the World Bank’s own contributions, repayments, and financing raised from the capital markets.

Through this financing model, IDA has a financial leveraging capacity that transforms one donor dollar into nearly four dollars for development impact.

Since its founding in 1960, IDA has had 20 replenishment cycles. The current cycle, known as IDA20 covers July 2022 to June 2025. The $93 billion IDA20 package was made possible by donor contributions from more than 50 high- and middle-income countries totaling $23.5 billion.  

IDA20 was designed to meet the unprecedented need in developing countries brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.  IDA20 is focused on Building Back Better from the Crisis: Towards a Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Future focusing on ofive special themes: Human Capital; Climate; Gender; Fragility, Conflict, and Violence; and Jobs and Economic Transformation; and ofour cross-cutting issues: Crisis preparedness; Debt; Governance and Institutions; and Technology.

IDA is currently mobilizing resources and developing a policy package for the next replenishment (IDA21) which will cover July 2025 to June 2028. The replenishment process for IDA21 will conclude in December 2024. The World Bank’s goal is to make IDA21 the largest replenishment ever.

Multiple crises have set back global development, putting millions of lives and livelihoods at risk, and left many poor countries heavily in debt. IDA’s 21st replenishment will respond to these challenges and seize the opportunity for change.