Tracking the Scale and Speed of the World Bank’s COVID Response: April 2021 Update

Abstract

Last year at this time, the World Bank announced its intention to provide $104 billion in financing to developing country governments to help them respond to the COVID-19 crisis. We took stock of those efforts seven months ago in a Center for Global Development working paper and accompanying blog post. We noted that Bank lending had accelerated significantly in 2020 relative to 2019, but that actual disbursements were not on track to meet the Bank’s own COVID lending goals, that the absolute magnitudes were dwarfed by the depth of the crisis facing low- and lower-middle income countries, and that the Bank bureaucracy was failing to pivot to more flexible, rapid financing instruments at its disposal.

More than a year into the pandemic, it’s time to check in again on the Bank’s crisis financing. We revisit four basic questions about the Bank’s lending performance since it originally announced its COVID response.