East Asia and Pacific and IDA

Overview

The World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) is one of the world's most impactful multilateral funds, delivering low-cost and grant financing along with global expertise to the world's low-income countries. IDA has been a committed partner in the East Asia and Pacific (EAP) region for over six decades. Its support has helped countries achieve strong and stable growth that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty and transformed economies across the region.

• Seven East Asian countries have since graduated from IDA support and five of them are now IDA donors-giving back to support those still in need: China, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, the Philippines, and Thailand.
• Currently, there are 14 IDA-recipient countries in the EAP region, from Tuvalu (12,000 people) to Myanmar (55 million people). Despite progress in reducing poverty, these countries continue to face challenges in addressing poverty, inequality, and social vulnerability, compounded by infrastructure deficits, human capital issues, and governance problems amid rapid urbanization and escalating climate change risks.

EAP's Most Recent IDA Graduates

• Viet Nam: IDA's support to Viet Nam since 1994 helped the Government of Viet Nam's lift 40 million people out of poverty by financing investments and providing policy advice. The country's human capital index is now the highest among lower middle-income countries and life expectancy rose from 70.5 in 1990 to 75.5 in 2020. By 2019, almost 100% of the population used electricity as the main source of lighting, up from just 14.0 percent in 1993. GDP per capita increased from $97 in 1990 to $4,346 in 2023. Viet Nam graduated in FY17.
• Mongolia: Graduated in FY20. IDA supported Mongolia in key sectors such as agriculture, energy, and transport at a time of significant economic hardship and political transition in the early 90's. Over 100,000 rural and herder families benefitted from electricity access and all 360 soums (regions) in Mongolia gained access to modern phone and internet services. IDA helped herders with the world's first index-based livestock insurance system. It supported the overhaul of the statistical system to match international standards and inform decision-making. It empowered citizens to make their voices heard on public expenditure allocations at local levels. Mongolia's economy has expanded significantly, with GDP per capita rising more than fourfold from $1,072 in 1991 to $4,339 in 2019 and $5,796.48 in 2023.

IDA Results in EAP

IDA has provided $25.8 billion in concessional financing to EAP countries between 2006 and 2024. Over the last year (between July 1st, 2023 - June 30, 2024), some examples of what IDA's support helped achieve:

• 24.2M people received quality health, nutrition, and population services;
• 11.3M people with strengthened food and nutrition security;
• 20.5M people benefited from improved access to sustainable transport infrastructure and services; and
• 3.2M students supported with better education.

IDA support has helped strengthen early warning systems and provides rapid response to disasters and pandemics. For instance, the Catastrophe Deferred Drawdown Option (Cat-DDO) has mobilized immediate funds for Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu. IDA supports health, nutrition, education, and job creation, notably improving early childhood development in rural Cambodia.

IDA also enhances banking ecosystems through projects like the Pacific Strengthening Correspondent Banking Relationships (CBR) Project, ensuring continuous access to correspondent banking services. The Pacific Aviation Investment Program has upgraded airports and runways in Kiribati, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu, making air travel safer and more efficient.

Going forward, IDA plans to scale up and replicate successful interventions in resilience and crisis response, the energy transition, food and nutrition security, human capital (including health emergency preparedness and response), digitalization, and water security.

IDA Financing Makes a Difference in People's Lives

Cambodia: Secondary Education Improvement Project

In Cambodia, the Secondary Education Improvement Project with funding of US$ 40.5 million from IDA has improved the learning experience for more than 450,000 students, 52 percent of them girls. The project, implemented between 2017-2022, helped establish 30 new lowersecondary schools, with a projected enrollment of around 6,175 students; constructed 76 new school buildings, with 395 classrooms; renovated 437 classrooms; installed 276 laboratories or subject learning facilities; and constructed 30 houses for teachers at remote schools. Thanks to project support, 94 of 100 schools achieved minimum standards of school effectiveness and 2,348 teachers upgraded their qualifications. The project supported the country's distance teaching and learning program and other efforts during the school closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lao People's Democratic Republic: Health and Nutrition Services Access Project

Between 2020 and 2024, the Health and Nutrition Services Access Project for Lao People's Democratic Republic improved access to good-quality health and nutrition services in 12 target districts across four provinces in northern Laos. As a result, 83% of infants aged 0-6 months are exclusively breastfed, up from 63% at the baseline; 78% of children received immunization from a baseline of just 34%, while nearly 80% of children under 2 have their growth monitored under national guidelines, a significant increase from 43% at the baseline. The project provided antenatal care (at least four sessions during pregnancy) to 80% of mothers up from 71% at the baseline, and household dietary diversity expanded, with 78% of households eating from four or more food groups daily, up from 64% at the baseline.

Viet Nam: Sustainable Agriculture Project

The Viet Nam Sustainable Agriculture Project was the first project to pilot low-methane emission rice production in Viet Nam. It has provided people in the Mekong Delta with the knowledge and resources they need to adopt new farming methods for boosting incomes and reducing methane emissions. Between 2015 and 2022, the project covered 184,643 hectares of farmland. The project increased net income for farmers by 32 percent and helped reduce 1.58 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year, slashing methane emissions from rice by up to 40 percent.

Papua New Guinea: Water Supply and Sanitation Project

The Papua New Guinea Water Supply and Sanitation Project aims to support the delivery of clean and safe water to residents of six towns, reducing the frequency and severity of outbreaks of water-borne diseases, improving hygiene, and allowing more girls to go to school. It has already provided 1 million additional cubic meters of safe water to households. By the end of the project, 25,000 people will have access to improved water services.

Lao People's Democratic Republic: Competitiveness and Trade Project and Business Assistance Facility

The Lao PDR-World Bank Competitiveness and Trade Project has helped simplify business regulations, facilitate trade, and improve the competitiveness of private firms. Under its Business Assistance Facility, by mid-2023 over 364 firms, 65 percent of them led by women, had received grants to upgrade productivity. This support directly helped 192 of these companies weather the impact of COVID-19. The project has worked with the government on a series of business regulatory reforms, reducing the number of steps needed to register a business from nine to three and simplifying the business licensing regime. Reforms have also simplified the restructuring process, making it easier for capital stuck in insolvent businesses to flow to more productive uses.

Vanuatu: Infrastructure Reconstruction and Investment Program

Vanuatu is highly vulnerable to natural hazards and disasters. Following Tropical Cyclone Pam, the World Bank's Vanuatu Infrastructure Reconstruction and Investment Program reconstructed or repaired 50 kilometers of roads and rebuilt 40 schools and 26 public facilities, aiming to render these infrastructure works more resilient to future disasters. More than 28,000 people benefited from road improvements, nearly 5,000 students benefited from safer school facilities, and 134,000 worker-days for local contractors were created.

Pacific Islands Countries: Building a Resilient Future in the Pacific (Various Projects) and Livelihoods Improvement Project

The Pacific island states are severely exposed to the impacts of climate change. The World Bank is supporting climate-resilient projects in 12 Pacific countries, totaling US$2.84 billion in net commitment, and working with governments and other development partners to strengthen the resilience of Pacific countries to future disasters by helping them extend and strengthen critical infrastructure and supporting their efforts to grow the Blue Economy. As a result of IDA support, half of all residents of Kiribati have benefited from more resilient roads; 45 percent of the population across the Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu are expected to benefit from greater access to resilient transport services; and cocoa growers in Papua New Guinea saw net income increase by 106%, through a livelihoods improvement project.

Pacific Islands Countries: Pacific Regional Connectivity Project

The Pacific Regional Connectivity Project is reducing the cost and increasing the availability of information and communication technology (ICT) services needed to support social and economic development in the Pacific. It has laid fiber-optic cables in Fiji, Samoa, Palau, Tonga, and Tuvalu, improving the quality and reducing the cost of service. In Tonga, for example, broadband access increased from 2 percent of the population in 2010 to 64 percent in 2021 and the average retail cost of broadband Internet declined by 97 percent.

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