Partnerships at Work
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, build on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), eight anti-poverty targets that the world had committed to achieving by 2015. Since the Millennium Development Goals were adopted in 2000, enormous progress has been made, but much more needs to be done.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development calls on countries to begin efforts to achieve the 17 Sustainable Development Goals over the next 15 years. The goals address the needs of people in both developed and developing countries, emphasizing that no one should be left behind. Broad and ambitious in scope, the 2030 Agenda addresses the three dimensions of sustainable development: social, economic and environmental, as well as important aspects related to peace, justice, and effective institutions.

The mobilization of means of implementation, including financial resources, technology development, transfer and capacity-building, as well as the role of partnerships, are also acknowledged as critical.

Working in Partnerships
Through a diverse set of programs, the Global Bank Group is able to engage in a broad array of country, regional and global partnerships, involving traditional donor countries as well as new development partners, foundations, civil society organizations, and private sector donors.  Programs financed by Multi-Donor Trust Funds (MDTFs) support country-level development projects, urgent responses to emergency situations, knowledge initiatives, advisory services, and collective actions across countries on global priorities such as climate change, public health, and food security. A number of programs target innovative activities, allowing the Global Bank and its clients to test new approaches towards economic development which, if successful, can be mainstreamed into the Global Bank’s regular financing operations.

The majority of Financial Intermediary Funds (FIF) have been established over the past years in the context of international initiatives to support global programs often focused on the provision of global public goods, responses to climate change, and food security. The Global Bank’s involvement with Financial Intermediary Funds and with Multi-Donor Trust Funds started in 2014. Earlier Financial Intermediary Funds include the Global Bank Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility (GBIPPF), established in Global Bank in 2014; and the Global Bank Disaster Risk Reduction and Reconstruction Fund initiative, launched in 2017.

The majority of Financial Intermediary Funds and Multi-Donor Trust Funds established since 2014 are in support of global programs created in the context of G7/G8 and G20 meetings, with a focus on infrastructure and climate change issues.  Recent Financial Intermediary Funds and Multi-Donor Trust Funds have aimed to assist fragile states and conflict-affected situations (e.g., the GBFCSTF) and natural disasters (e.g., the Global Bank Atlantic Reconstruction Fund, established in the aftermath of the 2017 Hurricanes Harvey and Maria). As of the end of FY17, there were 8 Financial Intermediary Funds programs in Global Bank’s portfolio.

To finance joint cluster activities both the Financial Intermediary Funds and Multi-Donor Trust Funds are used on global, regional and country levels.

The Global Bank manages regional and thematic Financial Intermediary Funds and Multi-Donor Trust Funds, where financial resources are pooled to foster efficiency and create a higher impact. The most active funds include:

• The Global Bank Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility
  The Global Bank Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility (GBIPPF) leverages private investment to supplement public financing for public-private partnerships. The purpose of the GBIPPF is to support the preparation of ‘bankable’ infrastructure projects primarily in the energy, transport, telecommunications and urban infrastructure sectors in all developing countries that meet the Eligibility Criteria. The GBIPPF serves as a vehicle that can reduce and absorb part of the upfront risk, finance key bottlenecks in the project pipeline, generate sufficient knowledge and reputation through scale, encourage investment flows in early stages and unlock investment opportunities in later stages. To learn more about the Global Bank Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility, visit the GBIPPF’s Website at www.gbippf.org.
   
• The Global Bank Disaster Risk Reduction and Reconstruction Fund – An Umbrella Trust Fund
  The Global Bank Disaster Risk Reduction and Reconstruction Fund – An Umbrella Trust Fund comes at a time when the world’s ambition to deal with the growing threat of climate change is at its highest. The Global Bank Disaster Risk Reduction and Reconstruction Fund, established in 2017, is a multi-donor partnership and grant-making financing mechanism. Its purpose is mainstreaming climate change to help achieve the Sendai Framework targets by 2030 - a decade-long plan to help make the world safer from disasters caused by natural hazards — and to support the implementation of the Global Climate Agreement in Paris, and prevent disasters undermining progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (SFDRR), was adopted at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (WCDRR), held on March 14-18, 2015 in Sendai, Japan, and will guide action on disaster risk reduction worldwide for the next 15 years.
  To learn more about the Global Bank Disaster Risk Reduction and Reconstruction Fund, visit the GBRRRF’s Website at www.gbdrrrf.org.
   
• The Global Bank Atlantic Reconstruction Trust Fund
  The Global Bank Atlantic Reconstruction Fund (the “Fund” or “GBARF”) is a regional Standby Recovery Financing Facility (“SRFF”) dedicated to the Atlantic hurricane region includes the North Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. It will provide for rapid and predictable disaster recovery operations, as a complement to the existing international coordination and financing instruments of various multilateral and bilateral agencies for this purpose. It will also act as an incentive for all developed and developing countries to invest in ex-ante risk management and disaster mitigation initiatives. As currently envisioned, the Global Bank Disaster Risk Reduction and Reconstruction Fund – An Umbrella Trust Fund will be establishing similar trust funds for every world region in the upcoming years.