The World Bank Group will soon announce the results of its Forward Look exercise, to map out its medium to long term strategy. It will also shortly finalise IDA18, the first replenishment of its concessional lending arm during the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) era.

The WBG has described the SDGs as a 'trajectory shift' in development dialogue, but whilst the allocation of WBG resources is responding to ambitious new global goals, the shift has been incremental. At the heart of the SDGs is the ambition to leave no one behind. The WBG’s twin goals of eliminating extreme poverty and promoting inclusive growth also entail reaching the hardest to reach.

This report is intended to inform the response of World Bank Group (WBG) shareholders and stakeholders to the resource allocation elements of IDA18 and the Forward Look. We ask whether the allocation of WBG resources is well aligned with its twin goals of eliminating extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity, and the fundamental ambition of the SDGs: to leave no one behind.