Economics & Development

On September 11, 2026, the Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association and the Boards of Directors of the International Finance Corporation and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency approved on an absence-of-objection basis the appointment of Ms. Martina Metz to the Budget Committee and the Committee on Development Effectiveness (CODE), succeeding Mr. Volker Oel and serving through October 31, 2026, as set out in documents dated September 9, 2026.

Ratings of the Green National Highways Corridor Project for India were as follows: outcome was moderately unsatisfactory; Bank performance was moderately satisfactory; monitoring and evaluation quality was modest. Lessons learned highlight that innovation must be matched with design readiness, delivery capacity, and institutional demand; future operations should first pilot green, climate resilience, and safety innovations on a smaller, well-prepared set of activities, with core standards, design approaches, verification protocols, and responsibilities agreed upfront, before scaling. Performance-based conditions linked to civil works require clear and practical verification arrangements; during appraisal, requirements for achievement and verification should be jointly defined, objectively measurable, stress-tested through likely implementation scenarios, and accompanied by clear explanation of environmental and social safeguards, especially for agencies new to Bank projects. For technically complex works, design readiness and prudent use of the engineering, procurement, and construction model are critical; the EPC model should not substitute for robust designs, and its suitability should be assessed against the capacity of the employer, contractors, and supervision engineers, with mechanisms for proactive design validation, timely field review, appropriate engineering modifications, and, where warranted, independent technical review. Procurement choices strongly influence quality and environmental and social compliance; future projects should right-size contract packages to attract capable firms, scrutinize abnormally low bids, rigorously assess contractor financial capacity and mobilization plans, and apply rated criteria to reduce the risk of selecting underqualified contractors. Early reporting and management of grievances can prevent escalation; implementing agencies should promptly inform the task team of any court cases or complaints, including those outside the grievance redress mechanism, and provide regular updates so corrective measures can be identified and implemented in time. Finally, performance-based conditions should align with the implementing agency’s mandate; indicators and disbursement-linked results must be within the agency’s control, and where outcomes depend on other entities, formal inter-agency commitments should be secured upfront or disbursements should not be tied to outputs beyond the agency’s authority.

The development objective of the project is to enhance the productivity, resilience, and market access of beneficiary women and youth vegetable farmers in selected urban and peri-urban communities in Liberia. To support this objective, the project requires a 4.7 million grant aimed at increasing productivity, climate resilience, market access, and employment opportunities for women and youth engaged in vegetable farming. The operation will be implemented across six counties through three components that leverage existing government and partner systems. Key activities include establishing 30 climate-smart gardens over 300 hectares and supporting approximately 15,000 value chain participants, including 7,500 smallholder farmers benefiting from irrigation. The project also promotes farmer organization development, food safety standards, private sector investment, market linkages, monitoring and evaluation, and knowledge sharing, with technical assistance provided in kind by FAO. Economic analysis indicates a strong expected return, with an estimated economic internal rate of return (EIRR) of 34.78 percent and an economic net present value of 39.26 million, while recognizing fiduciary, institutional, climate-related, and sexual exploitation, abuse, and harassment risks that will require mitigation measures.

Turkiye Agrifood Sector Transformation for Rural Jobs and Growth (TARGET) Project for Turkiye, with development objectives to enhance market integration, facilitate farmers’ access to finance, and support more and better-paid jobs in the agrifood sector. Component 1: Reimbursable Finance for Agrifood Sector Modernization and Inclusion supports a Reimbursable Finance Facility managed by the Agriculture and Rural Development Support Institution (TKDK) to catalyze value chain upgrading by agrifood enterprises and producer organizations through investments in processing, storage, cold chain, logistics, packaging, traceability, quality and food safety systems, and climate-resilient technologies, coupled with supplier development programs that link farmers to markets; selection follows transparent, performance-linked scoring that prioritizes job creation, farmer linkages, inclusion of women and youth, climate resilience, competitiveness, export readiness, and geographic targeting of less developed districts, with implementation in partnership with an Eligible Financial Institution for underwriting and repayment discipline. Sub-components include: establishment and operation of the Reimbursable Finance Facility; competitive calls and appraisal of Investment Subprojects; performance-based disbursement and monitoring; and measures to strengthen aggregation and supplier integration. Component 2: Strengthening the Financial Ecosystem for the Agrifood Sector pilots a partial credit guarantee administered by the Credit Guarantee Fund (KGF) to share risk with Participating Financial Institutions (PFI) and expand lending to farmers for medium-term upgrading, technology adoption, resilience, diversification, and seasonal needs, with higher guarantee coverage for women and youth, integration with value chain arrangements, links to agricultural insurance, portfolio caps and monitoring, and potential complementary financing from the International Finance Corporation Financial Institutions Group; Sub-components include: design and capitalization of the guarantee scheme; PFI onboarding and portfolio management; gender-responsive features and risk retention; and reporting, claims, and recoveries administration. Component 3: Project Management and Institutional Strengthening supports TKDK and the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MoAF) with project management, fiduciary, environmental and social compliance, monitoring and evaluation, and a learning agenda, and strengthens the digital footprint by establishing or upgrading a market linkage platform to connect farmers with producer organizations, processors, exporters, and other verified buyers to support Components 1 and 2; Sub-components include: institutional capacity building and systems strengthening; and development and operationalization of digital, data, and information tools that enable market connectivity and service delivery.