World Bank Treasury 90d ago

When the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world in 2020 and 2021, the consequences for children were devastating. Schools closed. Health systems buckled. Access to critical basic services was lost. The scale of the crisis demanded an urgent, creative response—and the World Bank and UNICEF found one in an unlikely place: the capital markets. In March 2021, the World Bank issued a $100 million, five-year bond that was a first for both institutions. It was the World Bank's inaugural outcome bond—a new type of instrument that links investor returns directly to real-world development results—and the first time UNICEF had accessed financing through the international capital markets.