Kenya to qualify for more zero interest loans from World Bank with improved ranking.
The latest World Bank review of policies and institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa showed Cape Verde and Kenya having the highest scores on the continent. While Kenya’s highest performing cluster tends to be on economic management, public sector management and institutions tends to rank the lowest. The scores of 11 countries rose by 0.1 points or more, reflecting a strengthened policy agenda, and the indexes of another 12 countries declined by at least 0.1 points. South Sudan and Eritrea- both countries that suffer deep policy challenges-had the lowest scores. Countries recovering from conflict-such as Cote d’Ivoire and Comoros- showed solid improvement. The Country Policy and Institutional Assessment (CPIA) rates countries against a set of 16 criteria grouped in four clusters: (a) economic management; (b) structural policies; (c) policies for social inclusion and equity; and (d) public sector management and institutions. Initiated by the Bank in the late 1970s, CPIAs consist of a set of criteria representing the different policy and institutional dimensions of an effective poverty reduction and growth strategy, and are intended to guide the allocation of zero interest rate international Development Association (IDA) lending resources. For each criterion, countries are rated on a scale of 1 (very weak performance) to 6 (very strong performance), and a total rating for each country is calculated with the overall CPIA score reflecting the average of the 16 indicators. IDA is one of the largest sources of assistance for the world’s 81 poorest countries, 39 of which are in Africa. Annual commitments have increased steadily and averaged about USD 15bn over the last three years, with about 50% of commitments going to Africa. The rankings suggest that Kenya is likely to get higher allocation of IDA over the coming year. (World Bank, Standard Investment Bank)