The Financial Times features Ben Leo's work on IDA and IBRD.
From the article:
"Significant financial resources could be freed up for investment in low income countries if the International Development Association and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development rebalanced their lending to low and middle income countries, according to an expert at the Center for Global Development in Washington DC.
Speaking ahead of an IDA donors meeting in Bamako, Mali, Ben Leo, a former director for African Affairs at the National Security Council and US Department of Treasury staffer, explains that the client base for the institution – the concessional lending window of the World Bank Group – has changed over the years.
“IDA has a couple of different categories of clients,” Mr Leo says. “You have the poorest countries, the most vulnerable countries, they call those IDA-only in their jargon. Then they have a group of countries that are still relatively poor, but are better off compared to the others and have access to market-based loans, whether it’s from the IBRD or on international capital markets. In their jargon, they call those the IDA-blends.”