International Development Association: 20th Replenishment

Tuesday 22nd February 2022 Written Statements

[The Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (Elizabeth Truss)]

The UK will shortly publish its international development strategy and the FCDO will publish its overseas development assistance (ODA) allocations, which will promote British expertise and bring more countries into the orbit of free, democratic nations and ultimately benefit the British people.

As part of this, we are rebalancing the aid budget towards bilateral programmes to give the UK greater control and flexibility over how taxpayers’ money is spent.

In December 2021, the UK pledged £1,414 million to the 20th replenishment of the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA20). This funding will support covid-19 vaccines, tackle climate change, get girls back into school and promote women’s economic empowerment.

The UK will be the third largest donor to IDA20, after the US and Japan, and our pledge will bring us more in line with our share of our global ODA.

Our IDA20 pledge is a reduction of 54% compared to our previous pledge to the 19th replenishment. This will allow us to focus funding on UK bilateral programmes and control how exactly taxpayers’ money is used to support our priorities, including clean infrastructure investment, promoting British expertise, supporting women and girls, and delivering humanitarian aid.

Thanks to the UK’s engagement in the IDA20 negotiations, the World Bank has committed to:

provide health services to over 285 million people;

lose learning gaps and improve learning outcomes for girls in 20 IDA countries;

support IDA countries to contain the covid-19 pandemic through vaccine roll-out, preventive measures, testing, treatment and care;

ensure that at least 35% of IDA financing tackles climate change;

fully align World Bank IDA operations with the Paris agreement by 2023;

support women’s empowerment by expanding access to affordable sexual and reproductive, adolescent and maternal health services in at least 30 IDA countries;

support all IDA countries to strengthen preparedness for future crises; and

mobilise private sector investment to create jobs in IDA countries.

We will continue to push for multilateral reform, building alliances with like-minded partners and improving value for money.

Consistent with the International Development Act 2002, and before any financial contributions are made, the Government will lay statutory orders relating to the IDA20 replenishment for the consent of the House of Commons.

[HCWS617]