Development Economics and the International Development Association

Abstract

Prevailing economic ideas -- and
 fashions -- about development have influenced the
 International Development Association (IDA) since its
 creation in 1960. The creation of the organization itself is
 the result of two contemporaneous facts: an urgent need to
 channel development finance to least-developed countries and
 an increasing pressure on World Bank management to directly
 address the issue of poverty in developing countries.
 Changing views, over time, have been a rationale -- and, at
 times, a justification -- for emphasizing poverty and social
 sectors; for providing grants to particular groups of
 countries; and for strategic choices and sectoral
 priorities. IDA has been influential in development debates
 and been an advocate for specific views about development
 policy. This paper gives an overview of these views and
 documents how they have shaped the activities of the
 organization since its creation. After a brief review of
 development thinking and of the organization of research at
 the World Bank, the paper documents the shifts that have
 taken place in country allocations and in sector emphasis in
 IDA over the past 50 years and highlights the strategic
 themes that have guided its development agenda: toward
 increasing country selectivity; from projects to programs;
 from conditionality to country ownership of reforms; and
 from input-based to results-based performance.