US Pledges $4 Billion for World Bank Arm Focused on Poor Nations
President Joe Biden pledged $4 billion for the World Bank unit focused on low-interest loans and grants to the poorest nations, bolstering the effort to secure funding amid uncertainty over the policies of President-elect Donald Trump.
Biden announced the three-year commitment at a meeting with other Group of 20 leaders in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, according to a senior administration official, who was granted anonymity in order to discuss the closed-door session.
The funds would go to the International Development Association, whose resources must be replenished every few years. The American contribution will require an appropriation from Congress, something that’s unlikely to take place before Trump takes office in January.
Trump and his advisers have generally favored more unilateral approaches to this kind of lending like the creation during his first administration of the International Development Finance Corp. During his first term, however, the US did agree to contribute about $3 billion to the refilling of the IDA fund in 2019.
Project 2025, a detailed governing plan crafted by some of Trump’s closest former White House advisers, recommended that the US withdraw its membership and funding for the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, though before the election Trump and his campaign disavowed the document.
In an interview last month, World Bank President Ajay Banga said that the institution was making progress in gathering money that could be leveraged to provide more than $100 billion to the roughly 75 poorest countries, up from a record $93 billion raised in the most-recent donor round ended in 2021.
