IDA is recognized as a global institution with a transformative effect that individual national donors cannot match.

• IDA acts as the “first mover” to tackle tough development challenges. IDA rallies others for the common good and helps make the world more secure.
• IDA provides leadership. IDA is the first of the major development partners to operate and provide significant support in post-conflict and crisis environments where risk mitigation is essential.
• IDA offers global solutions for global challenges. Many problems cannot be addressed with simple single-sector, single country, or single-organization solutions. Instead, solutions require collaboration and knowledge sharing among many sectors, countries, and organizations.
• IDA’s convening power is unmatched by any other development organization. Its comparative advantages include global reach, country solutions, cross-sectoral knowledge, ability to apply innovative financial instruments, operational and implementation expertise.
• IDA is transformational. IDA helps countries develop solutions that have reshaped the development landscape—from its history-changing agriculture solutions in the 1970s to its pioneering work in debt relief and the phase-out of leaded gasoline.
• IDA is a steadfast partner. IDA has engaged with countries on emerging issues or in areas where others either cannot or will not. IDA stays in a country after the cameras leave, emphasizing long-term growth and ensuring sustained results.
• IDA delivers for the poorest. IDA provides dignity and quality of life, bringing clean water, electricity, and sanitation to hundreds of millions of poor people.
• IDA makes the world a better place for girls and women. IDA works to reverse millennia of gender discrimination by getting girls to school, helping women access financing to start small businesses, and ultimately improving the economic prospects of families and communities.
• IDA offers development data, shared business standards. IDA offers development data, shared business standards, protection for global environmental commons, and management of pandemics and financial contagion risks.
• IDA, working with the World Bank Group, brings an integrated approach to development. IDA helps create environments where change can flourish and where the private sector can jumpstart investment.
• IDA is also a global leader in transparency and undergoes the most stringent independent evaluations of any international organization. For example, the 2022 Aid Transparency Index ranked IDA second out of 50 of the world’s major development agencies. IDA has been in the highest category since the index was first published in 2010.
• Equally, a 2018 assessment by the Center for Global Development and the Brookings Institution named IDA as one of the top-performing international development organizations, citing IDA’s low administrative costs and more predictable aid flows project size relative to other donors.
• In a climate where donor finances are stretched, there is even more need for donors to make greater and better use of multilateral channels. IDA is a leader among those channels.