IFAD’s Disbursement Performance: Trends and Drivers

Abstract

In the wake of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda’s call for unprecedented investments in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals, international financial institutions (IFIs) – such as the World Bank and the regional development banks – have been playing an increasingly important role in providing financial assistance to developing countries. Unlike budget support, which is nonearmarked and provided as a one-off payment, operations financed by IFIs are typically tied to the implementation of a particular programme or project for which funding is granted in tranches of disbursements. Accordingly, the success of IFI-financed operations, and their ability to have the intended development impact, depends on a rapid project start-up, and regular and timely disbursements of funding to recipient countries (Gohou and Soumaré, 2009; Sunjka and Jacob, 2013; Mishra, 2016). Although the observed disbursement performance is to a large extent a reflection of the recipient’s ability to implement the project, IFIs have a shared responsibility by supervising project implementation and releasing funds to the recipient when necessary and deemed appropriate.