Reaching the marginalized: EFA global monitoring report, 2010; 2010

2100CHAPTER 4Education for All Global Monitoring ReportFigure 4.19: There are long delays between allocation and disbursement from the Catalytic FundNumber of months between allocation, grant agreement and disbursement from the FTI Catalytic Fund, 2003–2009Timor-Leste *GambiaC. A. R.Burkina FasoZambiaGuyanaSao Tome/PrincipeMadagascarSenegalEthiopiaGuineaMongolia*Sierra LeoneMozambiqueCambodiaBeninMauritaniaMaliYemen *Nicaragua*Ghana*RwandaKyrgyzstanCameroonLesothoTajikistanDjiboutiRep. MoldovaKenyaMadagascarGhanaGambiaGuyanaNicaraguaYemenMauritania76551 11 34 312 3117102636329+29+29+1065213522+1615131110722Change inTrust Funds rules16+11817156+113+3+3+3+32+310+48+6+1012+January 2003 January 2004 January 2005 January 2006 January 2007 January 2008 January 2009Delay between allocation and grant agreement, in monthsDelay between grant agreement and first disbursment, in months* Third-year grant.Notes: A plus sign following the number of months means the process is not finished, i.e. the grant agreement has not yet been signed or the first disbursement made.Some countries appear more than once because they have received more than one allocation since endorsement.Source: FTI Secretariat (2008e, 2009b).Delays indisbursementdeter aidrecipients fromadopting moreambitious reformagendasDisbursement rates began to slow dramaticallywith a rule change in 2007. Presented withevidence of a proliferation of trust funds, WorldBank directors determined that the institutionfaced serious financial risk and was failing in itsfiduciary responsibilities. A directive required alltrust funds – including the FTI Catalytic Fund –to be subject to the same safeguards andmanagement procedures as IDA investmentprogrammes. The change applied retroactivelyto aid allocated but not yet disbursed(Bermingham, 2009a).Little thought appears to have been given tohow the change would affect the FTI. World Bankguidelines on application of the new rules to theCatalytic Fund became available in October 2008– more than a year after the decision. Severalbilateral donors have subsequently been criticalof the World Bank for the delays caused in FTIdisbursement as a result of the new rules, but thismisses an important point: the executive directorswho proposed and endorsed the change includedrepresentatives of countries contributing to the FTI.Concerned principally with fiduciary responsibilityand financial risk, and answerable to finance256