The World Bank Group (WBG) is well positioned to provide countries support to implement the breadth and depth of the SDGs given the WBG’s own twin institutional goals: Ending Poverty and Sharing Prosperity in a sustainable manner. Attainment of these two goals requires a multi-sector approach which aligns with the overall achievement of the SDGs. In addition, WBG’s structure – composed of Global Practices and Cross-Cutting Solution Areas - matches the 17 SDGs almost one to one, and is in line with the Addis Ababa Action Agenda (AAAA) and the Paris Agreement (COP21) adopted in 2015. Recent WBG reforms have aimed to strengthen the country engagement model, help facilitate the global flow of knowledge to support development solutions, leverage a “One WBG” approach, and strengthen our operational instruments.

WBG is working along several tracks to support the 2030 Agenda and the implementation of the SDGs. It supports country ownership and focuses on SDG-centered policies and institutions backed by effective leadership, which prioritizes and sequences actions. To assist countries in the delivery of the 2030 Agenda, WBG is following three interrelated tracks: (i) Financing, (ii) Data, and (iii) Implementation.

The joint Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) and IMF paper “from Billions to Trillions” has been instrumental in galvanizing discussion around potential solutions for financing the SDGs. The WBG, IMF, and MDBs are increasing the level of financing available to support country efforts on the SDGs. From 2016-2018, the MDBs plan financial support of over $400 billion. Beyond this, we aim to continue to use existing capital to mobilize and leverage other resources.

MDBs have identified the following areas of focus as priority:

• Mobilizing domestic resource which includes a new joint WBG/IMF tax initiative, and greater focus on illicit financial flows.
• Leveraging private sector, domestic, and foreign resources for investment in programs, projects, and various mechanisms that reduce risks and operational cost for the private sector.
• Developing tools to address global public goods (or bads), including global or regional initiatives around pandemics, forced displacement, and climate change.

There is a pressing need for improved data to both monitor progress and help design suitable policies and programs if the goals are to be met. WBG will take advantage of technology advances to achieve this track. The World Bank Group is actively:

• Ensuring availability of Household Budget Surveys (HBS) in Poorest Countries. Poverty-fighting efforts have been constrained by a lack of data in many countries. The WBG has identified 57 countries with 0-1 poverty surveys from 2002 to 2011 and hence is committed to have a HBS undertaken every three years in the 78 poorest country by 2020.
• Supporting universal civil registration of births, deaths, and other vital events through the new Global Financing Facility in support of Every Woman Every Child. $100m will be committed to achieve a target of reporting causes of death and providing legal proof of registration for all by 2030.
• Harnessing the Data Revolution. This means working in creative ways by putting different groups together across the public and private sectors. The WBG is an anchor partner of the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data.
• Statistical Capacity Building. Since the adoption of the MDGs, over 80 WBG countries have benefited from WBG technical and financial support to improve production of key statistics. To measure the status of statistical capacity in each country, the WBG has developed an index to track a country’s status and progress over time. In 1999, the average for WBG borrowing countries was 54 out of a possible 100 point while in 2014, the average increased to 68. The WBG is committed to support these efforts. In addition, it has established a Data Council to oversee improvement in the management of our corporate data, improve our use of data provided by country statistical systems, and better support countries to improve their statistical data.

The WBG Annual Meetings in Lima dedicated the Development Committee discussion to “WBG Support for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. WBG enhanced country engagement models enable the SDGs, given the SDG indicators and data, to inform diagnostics of key development challenges. The WBG Systematic Country Diagnostic (SCD) identifies and prioritizes key constraints for a country to accelerate progress toward the WBG’s Twin Goals and the SDGs, and the WBG Country Partnership Framework (CPF) provides a program of support to help countries address their most important development objectives, encompassing the SDGs relevant to the country. The WBG’s operational model supports engagement in priority areas – as identified in the Development Committee paper - including:

• Climate change: The WBG will increase climate financing. Currently, 21% of the WBG funding is climate related and is expected to rise to 28% in 2020- representing a one-third increase in climate financing- in response to client demands.
• Infrastructure: Responding to the demands of the AAAA, the MDBs brought together an infrastructure forum to coordinate global efforts to address the infrastructure gap in April 2016 to addresses SDG 9 on innovation and infrastructure.
• Fragility: The WBG is committed to supporting countries affected by fragility, conflict, and violence- a key priority for the WBG IDA replenishment. The institution is also actively engaged in the global discussion to create a new Humanitarian/Development narrative in response to current global challenges. Among WBG instruments, a new Global Crisis Response Platform as well as a new Middle East and North Africa financing initiative is responding to challenges in fragile environments.
• Partnerships: A central tenant of the SDGs is partnership at the global, regional, and country-level and the WBG provides a platform for coordinated action. Partnership with the UN, MDBs, bilateral agencies, as well as clients is one of our key pillars of support for the SDGs and the WBG is involved in numerous global partnerships, including the Financing for Development agenda with the MDBs and UN, as well as umbrella partnerships such as Every Woman Every Child and Sustainable Energy for All.

The World Bank Group is recognized for providing reliable, global data and analysis. Our annual World Development Indicators report will continue to compile annual development indicators from officially-recognized international sources of national, regional and global data. The World Bank Group Global Monitoring Report will provide further analysis of progress on the SDGs in light of emerging trends and priorities.