95529 Results Profile: Infrastructure March 25, 2010 BRIDGING THE INFRASTRUCTURE GAP Millions gain access to electricity, roads, safe water and telephones Overview The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) has provided much-needed financing to countries for increasing access to infrastructure services. IBRD projects have provided electricity, roads, safe water, improved sanitation, slum upgrading and telecommunications services to millions of people, easing access to health and education services and significantly improving their quality of life. Yet, a large number of people in middle-income countries still lack access to basic infrastructure, such as clean water and sanitation services, reliable electricity, and safe and well-maintained roads. The global financial crisis has made bridging the infrastructure gap even harder for many countries. Given this environment, IBRD financing, knowledge, advice and technical assistance is of even greater importance. Full Brief—34 Pages Infrastructure Brief—PDF, April 2010 Challenge An estimated 880 million people still live without safe water, More Results 1.5 billion people without electricity, 2.5 billion people without sanitation, and more than 1 billion people without access to 30 either an all-weather road or telephone services. These figures represent enormous hurdles to a better standard of living and economic prosperity for many developing million countries. At the same time, middle-income countries face huge financing shortfalls.  The global financial crisis has made financing more difficult as access to capital markets people have gained access to and bank lending has been reduced or halted, and risk electricity since 1990 perception has increased.  Faced with declining fiscal receipts and the need to increase spending on immediate 20 social needs, developing country governments are finding it difficult to maintain financial commitments to infrastructure projects. Approach million more people can tap safe water In 2008, IBRD sharply increased support for infrastructure since 1990 that contributes to economic growth, provides services to poor and disadvantaged people and remote communities, and promotes local and global environmental sustainability. Today, IBRD works closely with IFC and MIGA to support 43,000 km public-private partnerships in developing countries through a range of initiatives: by improving legal and regulatory frameworks; boosting output-based aid; mobilizing local long- term currency funding for infrastructure; supporting financial of roads constructed or rehabilitated and another 39,000 intermediaries; supporting transaction preparation; providing km repaired or maintained in credit enhancements; and partial guarantees. past decade The World Bank launched the Infrastructure Recovery and Assets Platform (INFRA) in early 2009 to protect existing assets and priority projects and maintain spending on MORE INFORMATION infrastructure. IFC also launched the Infrastructure Crisis Facility (ICF) in April 2009 to mobilize up to $10 billion to Sustainable Development support private and public-private partnerships in infrastructure development in emerging markets and   developing countries. IBRD financing for infrastructure rose from a low of $2.5 billion in FY2002, to $7.8 billion in FY2008 and $12.7 billion in FY2009.  Results IBRD projects have provided electricity, roads, safe water, improved sanitation and slum upgrading to millions of people, easing access to health and education services and significantly improving their quality of life.  More than 30 million people have gained access to electricity since 1990; more than 20 million people have gained access to safe water and 10 million people to improved sanitation in the last decade. Over the past decade 15,000 MW of power generation capacity has been installed or rehabilitated in member countries; about 43,000 km of roads have been constructed or rehabilitated and another 39,000 km have been repaired or maintained; and 100 million people have benefited from improved water resource management including pollution reduction, flood control and improved regulation of ground and surface water. World Bank rural electrification projects from 1980 to 2006 brought electricity to more than 130,000 villages, reaching at least 20 million households, supplied more than 600,000 km of new lines, and installed more than 50 substations.  More than 1 million Solar Photovoltaic (PV) systems have been installed, benefitting millions of people. IBRD-supported projects completed between 2007 and 2010 helped install and rehabilitate at least 15,000 MW of power generation capacity in member countries. IBRD boosted financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy to $1.3 billion in FY2009 from $34 million in FY2003, supporting, among other efforts, off-grid solar power development in China, now the largest exporter of solar panels in the world, renewable energy development in Turkey, hydropower in India, and an effort in Ukraine that increased energy efficiency in public buildings by 17 percent between 2000 and 2005. Transport investments—about 19 percent of total IBRD commitments—have played a critical role in delivering and providing access to health care and education.  In Morocco, girls’ enrollment in education more than tripled within a few years of a rural roads project’s completion.  Bus rapid transit systems in Colombia are transforming urban transport; in Bogota, alone, some 1.4 million mostly low-income passengers use the system daily.  IBRD investments have improved the quality, quantity and delivery of urban services such as slum upgrading, local economic development, and municipal management in more than 4,500 cities and towns. IBRD has supported reforms to help municipalities raise their own revenues through local taxes, levies and user-fees. IBRD has provided both investment (largely to rollout services in rural areas), policy and regulatory assistance for the telecommunications sector to more than 40 IBRD countries in the past decade, helping unlock political support for reforms and increasing private investments in the sector. Private investors transferred approximately $100 billion to governments of IBRD countries through privatizations and license awards between 1997 and 2008. Toward the Future Demand for infrastructure is expected to remain strong in IBRD countries and a greater effort will be required to help countries bridge the access gap and achieve the Millennium Development Goals, in addition to supporting economic recovery, growth and development, and climate change mitigation and adaptation. Therefore, it will be critical that IBRD has sufficient resources to enable it to increase financial support to client countries, provide high quality knowledge and non-lending services and act as convener to improve harmonization and coordination among clients and development partners.    Last updated: 2010-04-20