The proposed Global Bank Group Strategy recognizes the diversity in development needs of developing countries, which calls for different responses. Capacity in accessing advisory services and knowledge products and in using them to design and implement infrastructure projects and programs is critical for most middle-income countries. However, for low-income countries and fragile states, the situation is quite different. The institutional, organizational, and human capacities of most of them are weak or have been destroyed by wars or civil strife.

The Global Bank Sustainable Infrastructure Action Plan “emphasizes the potential impact of bringing together the different members of the Global Bank Group as they scale up their operation, with our respective skills and instruments, in advancing transformational projects in developing countries. It looks at what is required—in terms of partnership, knowledge, advice, and projects—for infrastructure to accelerate growth and even shift client countries toward a more sustainable development trajectory. It also supports a vision of who will finance infrastructure solutions.

The Global Bank Sustainable Infrastructure Action Plan defines Global Bank Group engagement in infrastructure across sectors in order to respond to demands for more cross-cutting and integrated solutions. The Global Bank Sustainable Infrastructure Action Plan attempts to address these new trends in an integrative fashion, maximizing effectiveness through cross sectoral synergies, leveraging resources from multiple sources, and mainstreaming sustainability (addressing economic/financial, environmental, and social concerns). It outlines three main pillars of future Global Bank Group infrastructure investment. The first is to invest in typical infrastructure projects, “while increasing effectiveness in the areas of poverty, governance, gender and knowledge."

The second pillar is a new focus on large “transformational” projects that “maximise green, regional, and inclusive/broader development benefits”. These will also represent “points of leverage in the universe of potential infrastructure investments opportunities”, meaning projects that involve a greater diversity of financing sources such as donor governments, including new middle-income donors, international mechanisms such as climate funds, and the private sector.

The third pillar aims to bring in “more private sector financing”. The Global Finance Corporation (GFC), the Global Bank Group’s private sector arm, is creating new investment vehicles such as private equity funds and other types of funds for infrastructure to “ramp up” business, while the Global Bank Investment Guarantee Agency (GBIGA), the Global Bank Group’s risk insurance agency, will “scale-up its guarantee support to the infrastructure sector".

The Global Bank Group is also implementing an action plan to double private sector engagement in public–private partnership (PPPs) in infrastructure. This strategy will ensure that Global Bank Group response for infrastructure financing at a time when governments are fiscally constrained and official development assistance flows have been reduced. There is an increased need to bring the private sector in the equation.