WASHINGTON, United States (CMC) — The World Bank says its commitments to help developing countries, including those in the Caribbean, take on poverty and boost opportunity reached nearly US$59 billion in loans, grants, equity investments and guarantees in fiscal year 2017 (July 1, 2016

— June 30, 2017).

 “With aspirations of the poor on the rise, and overlapping crises, such as forced displacement, famine and climate change adding urgency to our mission, our staff this year worked to provide marked increases in financing from IDA, IFC, and MIGA,” said World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim on Tuesday.

 IDA is the abbreviation for International Development Association, IFC for International Finance Corporation and MIGA for Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency.

 “While this year we have had to actively manage IBRD (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) lending, the Board and management are discussing approaches to ensure adequate capacity across the World Bank Group to best help countries achieve their development goals,” Kim said.

 “As always, we are committed to working with our member countries and other partners to crowd in private investment and maximise resources for the poor,” he added.

 The World Bank said commitments from IBRD, which provides development knowledge to countries, combined with financing and risk management products, were at US$22.6 billion in FY17.

 “This reflects the bank’s careful attention to ensuring continued strong capital adequacy ratios and prudent financial management into the future, while responding to client countries’ most pressing development challenges,” the World Bank said.

 It said commitments from the IDA, which provides zero or low-interest loans and grants to the world’s 77 poorest countries, hit US$19.5 billion in FY17.

 “IDA’s increased commitments reflect strong demand for financing, as well as IDA’s efforts to better leverage resources and expand financing options for borrowing countries,” the World Bank said. “FY17 continued to reflect very high demand for IDA financing from clients, fully committing the three-year resource envelope of IDA17.”

The bank said these efforts include an additional US$3.9 billion allocated for non-concessional lending to finance transformational projects in qualified IDA countries.

 Increased financing has also allowed IDA to respond rapidly to global crises.

 The World Bank said the IFC, the largest global development institution, focused exclusively on the private sector, leveraged its capital, expertise, and influence to create markets and opportunities wherever they were needed most.

 Preliminary and unaudited data as of June 30 indicated that IFC’s long-term investments totalled about US$18.7 billion, including funds mobilised from other investors.

 In FY17, IFC made nearly US$11.9 billion in long-term investments from its own account and mobilised about US$6.8 billion from other investors.

 The World Bank said these “often-complex” investments supported 342 long-term finance projects in developing countries around the world.

 IFC maintained its strategic focus on the poorest countries and regions, providing more than US$4.6 billion in long-term financing to accelerate development in IDA countries, including funds mobilised from other investors.

 It said these countries accounted for nearly 25 per cent of IFC’s total investments.