Jobs are the test of change

The most important test of World Bank Group reform happens outside the World Bank Group. It happens when a business can expand, a worker can earn more, and a young person can see a future worth preparing for. That test is getting harder. Aid budgets are shrinking. Debt is squeezing public investment. Conflict and climate shocks are eroding livelihoods. Skepticism about international cooperation adds another demand: show that change inside our institutions makes a difference outside them. The FY26 Scorecard offers evidence that we are strengthening the conditions for jobs. It also reveals the logic connecting our reforms. A sharper focus on outcomes tells us what to pursue. Global knowledge helps identify what stands in the way. Private capital and better risk sharing expand what is possible. Working as one World Bank Group brings those capabilities together. The three pillars of our jobs strategy give that effort a practical direction: build the foundations, open the way, and back the opportunity.The three pillars of our jobs strategy give that effort a practical direction: build the foundations, open the way, and back the opportunity. Build the foundations Jobs begin long before a vacancy is advertised. They begin with learning, good health, reliable electricity and a route to market. Across the Scorecard reporting portfolio, 326.6 million students received better education, 615 million people accessed quality health services, and 258.4 million people gained electricity access. Delivery is expanding. All 15 indicators with comparable data on achieved results show gains since FY24. Access to financial services rose 159 percent, broadband use 114 percent, and electricity access 51 percent. Ambition is expanding too, as the expected results show. Better measurement is part of that story – we are tracking more and tracking it more precisely. Uzbekistan shows what that foundation looks like in practice. Private solar investment needed credible auctions, workable contracts and confidence that electricity buyers would pay. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) brought transaction advice and financing; the World Bank provided payment guarantees. The Samarkand and Jizzakh plants added 440 megawatts of capacity and generated more than 930 gigawatt-hours by the time the project closed. The partnership also strengthened Uzbekistan’s ability to procure private renewable power independently. That is the larger ambition: deliver the result, and build the system that can repeat it. Open the way A business can have workers, customers and a good product — and still be unable to grow. Unpredictable rules, weak credit information or a government that pays late can close the path to expansion. The second pillar of our jobs strategy targets exactly those barriers: the regulatory, financial and institutional obstacles that prevent businesses from acting on the opportunities in front of them. Global knowledge becomes useful when it reaches the decisions that shape a business’s day. In Morocco, the Country Growth and Jobs Report and Country Private Sector Diagnostic are informing a connected agenda on regulation, finance, skills and digital transformation. World Bank and IFC support connects improvements in financial infrastructure and financing rules to practical changes in how lenders serve firms. Consider getting paid. In Marrakech-Safi, IFC advisory support helped cut public-contract payment times from 39 to 22 days and clear $14.4 million in arrears. For a firm, those 17 days mean less money tied up while wages and suppliers still need paying. Better public systems can change private possibilities. Knowledge also travels. Experience with crop receipts in Ukraine is being adapted in the Western Balkans and South Caucasus; Albania has adopted a Crop and Warehouse Receipts law. Crop receipts allow farmers to use their harvests as collateral to secure financing — and the approach is proving transferable. The value of a global institution grows when countries can build on one another’s experience. Back the opportunity Stronger foundations and better rules create opportunities. Capital allows firms to act on them.The Scorecard records $328.7 billion in expected private capital mobilized — up 67 percent since FY24 — and $242.5 billion in expected private capital enabled, up 50 percent since FY25 when it was first reported. These are two complementary routes to investment. Mobilization brings private capital alongside our operations. Enabling changes the conditions that attract investment in the first place. IFC accounts for about 63 percent of expected mobilization; IBRD and IDA account for about 71 percent of expected capital enabled. The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) helps investors manage political and regulatory risk, extending the Group’s reach into markets where private capital would otherwise not go. One World Bank Group means making these strengths work together. Ecuador shows what reaching smaller business can do. World Bank support helped Corporación Financiera Nacional channel finance through other financial institutions, strengthening a system for reaching smaller firms. By the end of 2025, 22 institutions had provided more than 26,000 sub-loans. An evaluation using 2019–2023 data estimated an 8.9 percent employment gain among the formal firms studied, rising to about 27 percent among firms without previous bank credit. The lesson goes beyond lending more. Build institutions that can reach more firms—and learn which firms benefit most. Risk sharing extends that possibility. Annual private capital mobilization reached $112 billion in FY26, and the Group issued more than $25 billion in guarantees, supported by a platform providing a single point of access. A guarantee matters when it changes an investor’s decision and makes productive investment possible. These figures are annual flows, distinct from the Scorecard’s portfolio amounts. That purpose matters especially in difficult settings. The Scorecard reports electricity access for 54.8 million people in fragile and conflict-affected economies, alongside services and livelihoods support for 19.5 million displaced people and host-community members. In the Horn of Africa, DRIVE — a resilience program combining drought insurance, savings and payments with stronger livestock markets — reached approximately 475,000 policyholders with $12.5 million in payouts in FY26. Protecting livestock protects productive assets. Building insurance and market systems helps livelihoods survive the next shock. Make the next decision better There is much more to do. Low-income economies account for only about 6 percent of expected private capital mobilization. And even where capital does flow, it does not always reach those who need it most — Ecuador’s evaluation found that lenders still favored firms with established credit relationships, even though gains were larger among first-time borrowers. Those findings should influence the next product, the next incentive, and the next allocation of risk. Nor should we attribute every result to recent reform. These achievements reflect country leadership and years of partnership. They show approaches worth expanding, and systems worth strengthening. The test ahead is whether we can make them work more widely. Upcoming reporting on the More and Better-paid Jobs indicator will sharpen how we measure progress. It translates gains in labor income — from additional employment and better-paid work — into an equivalent number of jobs. First reporting is planned for the IDA21 Mid-Term Review. It will help connect what our operations support to what people earn. Our global listening tour is helping improve the Scorecard itself. Through its Mid-Term Review, we are working toward more credible evidence, a better account of country realities and knowledge contributions, and results that are easier to use. Transparency makes progress visible — and scrutiny helps us decide what to change. That is the Outcome Reflex: “What will this decision do to the outcome?” It belongs wherever we design a project, advise a government, or share a risk. The Scorecard should help us move from storing results to steering decisions. Build the foundations. Open the way. Back the opportunity. And judge our reform by the lives those decisions change.