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Home/DFI Index/DFI Transparency Index 2025/World Bank
DFI

DFI Transparency Index 2025

World Bank

Score:
85.7
Position:
1 / 10 (Sovereign)

Overview

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries. It consists of the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). IDA provides concessional or interest-free loans and grants to governments of the poorest countries, while IBRD lends to governments of middle-income and creditworthy low-income countries. It was established in 1944 and was among the first multilateral development banks to become an IATI member in 2008.

Analysis

Overall, World Bank came top of all the sovereign portfolios assessed, scoring 85.7 out of 100. This marks a significant improvement from 2023 when it scored 65.4 and ranked 4th out of 9 institutions. In this edition of the Index, World Bank came top in the Core Information and Impact Management components, 4th for ESG and Accountability to Communities and 3rd for Financial Information. By contrast, in 2023 it did not place higher than 3rd in any component. World Bank gained format points throughout the assessment.

In the Core Information component, World Bank scored 26.63 out of 30, improving from 4th to 1st position between 2023 and 2025. It scored on all seventeen indicators in this component and scored 100 per cent on twelve of them. The only factors preventing it from achieving 100 per cent in this component were gaps in its disclosure policy, inconsistent disclosure of sub-national location and investment instrument on IATI, inconsistent reporting of total investment cost in the bulk download, and the absence of a last update date in the bulk download file.

World Bank also came joint first in the Impact Management component, scoring full points of 30 out of 30. In 2023, it ranked 2nd with a score of 25.33. It was one of two sovereign DFIs to score for all project-level questions in this component. It scored 100 per cent for all five indicators of the component. World Bank scored higher by improving the consistency of its results data on IATI and disclosing its approach to measuring impact attribution.

World Bank came 4th in the ESG and Accountability to Communities component, scoring 20.5 out of 30. At the project level, it continued to be one of two sovereign DFIs to score 100 per cent on the summary of E&S risks indicator. Its performance across the E&S project plans/assessments indicator and IAM global disclosure stayed the same as in 2023. However, it showed a slight improvement on the assurance of community disclosure indicator, due to more consistent disclosure of the relevant details.

In the Financial Information component, World Bank ranked 3rd with a score of 8.58 out of 10. It scored for all indicators in this component and showed progress in the currency of investment, and loan pricing information. It scored for the new climate finance methodology indicator and performed well on the new project-level climate finance indicator, only missing out for not consistently providing a detailed budget breakdown for climate finance.

Core Information 26.63 / 30
Impact Management 30 / 30
ESG & Accountability to Communities 20.5 / 30
Financial Information 8.58 / 10

Recommendations

  • World Bank should review its disclosure policy according to current best practice and the DFI Transparency Tool.
  • World Bank should update its bulk download file to include sub-national location data and ensure the investment instrument is consistently disclosed across all investments. It should also add total investment cost, disbursement, currency of investment and last update date as fields in the bulk download file.
  • It should disclose a list of investment exemptions at the organisational level.
  • World Bank should require clients to disclose the availability of the IAM to project-affected people where appropriate.
  • It should publish all E&S documents for investments that have them, including environmental and social impact assessments and stakeholder engagement plans for higher risk projects.
  • World Bank should specify which documentation was disclosed to project-affected people when required and indicate whether the existence of a Project Grievance Mechanism (PGM) and Independent Accountability Mechanism (IAM) was communicated to them, including the method of disclosure.
  • It should consistently disclose a budget breakdown of climate finance at the investment level.
Core Information 26.63 / 30
Impact Management 30 / 30
ESG & Accountability to Communities 20.5 / 30
Financial Information 8.58 / 10

Deep Dive

Core Information

26.63 / 30
About component

The basic information that describes a DFI’s organisational policies and investments. This type of information is typically found in key organisation documents and represents the first tier of project information, typically disclosed on project web pages or in files available for bulk download. At the organisation level this includes access to information policies and annual reports. At the project level, this includes project titles, locations, and key dates.

Does the development finance institution (DFI) have a disclosure or access to information policy?0.75 / 0.75
Does the policy include a presumption of disclosure?0 / 0.75
Does the policy have limitations of commercially sensitive information and sensitive internal deliberations information?0 / 0.75
Does the policy have an independent appeals process?0.75 / 0.75
Does the DFI's portal allow free, bulk export of data?0.67 / 0.67
Does it contain detailed disaggregated data?0.67 / 0.67
Is the data published under an open licence?0.67 / 0.67
Does the DFI disclose an annual report?1 / 1
Does the DFI disclose a project title?0.75 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose a unique identifier for the project?0.75 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the current status of the activity?1.5 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose a description of the activity?0.75 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the objectives, rationales, and expected outcomes of the activity?0.75 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the country the activity takes place in?0.75 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the sub-national location the activity takes place in?0.19 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the activity as sovereign or non-sovereign? Or; Does the DFI disclose the activity as public sector or private sector?1.5 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose the sector of the activity?0.75 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the sub-sector of the activity?0.75 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the investment instrument of an activity?0.75 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose the total investment cost?0.13 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the DFI commitment for the investment?0.5 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the disbursement for the investment?0.5 / 0.5
Does the DFI disclose the source of funding for the investment?1.5 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose the name of the client?1.5 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose a relevant DFI contact?0.75 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose a relevant client contact?0.75 / 0.75
Does the DFI disclose the environmental and social (E&S) risk category of the activity?1.5 / 1.5
Does the DFI disclose the date of activity disclosure?0.38 / 0.38
Does the DFI disclose the approval date of the activity?0.38 / 0.38
Does the DFI disclose the signature date of the activity?0.38 / 0.38
Does the DFI disclose the last update date of the project data?0.19 / 0.38
Does the DFI disclose the investment contract for the activity?4.5 / 4.5

Impact Management

30 / 30
About component

The ways in which a DFI predicts, measures, and evaluates the impacts of their investments. At the organisation level, this includes an impact measurement approach. At the project level, this includes activity indicators/metrics and results.

Does the DFI publish a methodology explaining its approach to impact measurement?2 / 2
Does the DFI indicate which standards/initiatives it is aligned to?2 / 2
Does the DFI explain its approach to determining impact attribution?2 / 2
Does the DFI publish sector or (multi-)country strategies?4 / 4
Does the DFI have a policy on the evaluation of investments?2 / 2
Does the DFI disclose the evaluations that it conducts?2 / 2
Does the DFI disclose results indicators for the activity?4 / 4
Does the DFI disclose metrics, definitions and/or methodologies for the indicators?4 / 4
Does the DFI disclose baseline data for identified indicators?2.67 / 2.67
Does the DFI disclose a target value for the indicators?2.67 / 2.67
Does the DFI disclose an actual/current value for the indicators?2.67 / 2.67

ESG & Accountability to Communities

20.5 / 30
About component

The ways in which a DFI predicts, mitigates, and communicates the ESG aspects of their activities. At the organisation level this includes E&S global disclosure policy and E&S community disclosure policy. At the project level this includes E&S plans and assessments, and assurance of community disclosure.

Does the DFI have a policy on early disclosure of investments?0.83 / 0.83
Does the DFI clearly articulate what E&S documentation will be disclosed for medium and high-risk projects?0.83 / 0.83
Does the DFI disclose the E&S policies/standards it applies (e.g. IFC Performance Standards or in-house policies) for its investments?0.83 / 0.83
Does the DFI have a policy that specifies when a document should be translated and in which language?0.83 / 0.83
Does the DFI disclose an explanation of project risk categorisation?0.83 / 0.83
Does the DFI disclose a list of investment exemptions?0 / 0.83
Does the DFI have a community disclosure policy?1 / 1
Does the policy require early disclosure to project-affected people?1 / 1
Does the DFI clearly articulate what E&S documentation will be disclosed to project-affected people for investments?1 / 1
Does the DFI have a free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) policy?1 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the availability of the Independent Accountability Mechanism (IAM) on its website?1 / 1
Does the DFI IAM have a publicly available registry that publishes results, responses, or findings?1 / 1
Does the DFI require clients to disclose the availability of the IAM to project-affected people where appropriate? Or; Does the DFI state that it will disclose the availability of IAM to project-affected people?0 / 2
Does the DFI require clients to disclose the availability of the project-level grievance mechanism (PGM) to project-affected people where appropriate? Or; Does the DFI state that it will disclose the availability of the PGM to project-affected people?2 / 2
Does the DFI disclose a summary of E&S risks for an activity?1 / 1
Are E&S standards triggered by the project identified?1 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the minimum E&S documentation for the risk categorisation?0 / 1.33
Does the DFI disclose what E&S documentation was produced for the activity?1.33 / 1.33
Does the DFI disclose all identified E&S documents that were produced for the activity?0 / 1.33
Does the DFI state if disclosure of the activity to projected-affected people was required?1 / 1
If yes, then: Does the DFI state the date of community E&S disclosure?1 / 1
Does the DFI state the place of community E&S disclosure?1 / 1
Does the DFI state the method of community disclosure?1 / 1
Does the DFI state what documentation was disclosed?0 / 1
Does the DFI identify the language of disclosure to project-affected people?0 / 1
Does the DFI state if the presence of a project grievance mechanism was disclosed and the method it was disclosed?0 / 1
Does the DFI state if the presence of an independent accountability mechanism was disclosed and the method it was disclosed?0 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the presence of the IAM on the DFI project page?1 / 1

Financial Information

8.58 / 10
About component

This information provides details on the financial performance of DFIs and the structuring of investments. At the organisation level, this includes audited financial reports. At the project level, this includes currency of investment, mobilisation, and concessionality

Does the DFI disclose audited financial reports/statements?1 / 1
Does the DFI publish a methodology explaining its approach to calculating climate finance?1 / 1
Does the DFI disclose the currency that the investment is made in?0.25 / 1
Does the DFI disclose whether investment has co-financers or guarantors?0.33 / 0.33
If there are co-financers, does the DFI disclose the identity of the co-financers?0.33 / 0.33
And, does the DFI disclose the amount of financing provided by each co-financer?0.33 / 0.33
Does the DFI disclose detailed pricing information about the investment, including interest rate and loan tenor?2 / 2
Does the DFI disclose whether an investment includes climate finance?0.67 / 0.67
If the investment includes climate finance: Does the DFI disclose whether it is mitigation and/or adaptation climate finance?0.67 / 0.67
Does the DFI disclose the amount of climate finance for the investment?0.67 / 0.67
Does the DFI disclose the amount of mitigation and/or adaptation finance for the investment?0.67 / 0.67
Does the DFI disclose a rationale for why climate finance has been counted?0.67 / 0.67
Does the DFI disclose a budget breakdown for climate finance? (sovereign only)0 / 0.67