The role of regional multilateral banks in relation to the World Bank. Why is it different in Africa?

The African Development Fund (ADF) is much less active than the World Bank’s IDA in Africa. This predominance of the IDA is only found in Africa. In fact, disbursements by other major regional banks exceed those of the World Bank in their respective regions (Central America and the Caribbean, South America, Asia, Oceania). This shortfall in concessional resources in Africa is not offset by non-concessional or slightly concessional funds. Why is there such a shortfall? Why is it specific to Africa? The document seeks to identify the reasons for this situation, whether institutional, political, or technical. The document begins with a descriptive statistical analysis of the relative weight of each major regional development bank compared to the World Bank in each major region, and its evolution over the last 20 years, distinguishing between concessional and non-concessional resources. To interpret these figures, it then examines three hypotheses already put forward by Nancy Birdsall in a 2018 article.