Today’s development challenges are broader, more complex, and more interconnected than ever before. At the same time, resources are increasingly constrained. This moment demands a more coordinated response. The question is no longer whether we work together, but how effectively—and how quickly—we can do so.

That is why the World Bank Group has been working to unlock the power of co-financing—mobilizing resources, aligning efforts, and translating collaboration into impact.

Co-financing is not new, but in today’s environment, it has taken on new importance. When partners align behind country priorities, co-financing reduces aid fragmentation, lowers transaction costs, and enables countries to lead larger and more complex programs than any one financier could support alone.

A recent report, Building Together: Co-Financing with the World Bank – Progress Report 2025, showcases co-financing’s potential. Over the past five years, co-financing for World Bank Group projects has grown steadily, reaching a record $7.6 billion in fiscal year 2025. This growth reflects deliberate reforms: clearer pathways for co-financing, more attractive cost-sharing arrangements, and stronger institutional partnerships. It also reflects a renewed commitment among multilateral development banks, bilateral partners, and others to work as a system.

From coordination to impact

As co-financing gains momentum, partners are increasingly aligned on one point: Scaling collaboration requires a clearer shared direction for how we work together.

In February 2026, the World Bank Group, together with the Moroccan Ministry of Economy and Finance and Agence Française de Développement (AFD) Groupe, will convene The Power of Joining Forces: Co-financing for Progress, a high-level forumin Casablanca, Morocco. Senior leaders from governments, multilateral development banks, bilateral partners, and partner co-financiers will come together to share real-world experience, demystify how co-financing works—including with the private sector—and identify opportunities to deepen collaboration.

Morocco offers a compelling setting. From the Greater Casablanca Mobility Hub to recent investments in municipal performance, Morocco’s experience shows how coordinated financing can deliver transformative results. AFD, the World Bank’s largest bilateral co-financing partner over the past decade, exemplifies what long-term, structured partnerships can achieve. It was among the first bilateral partners to engage through the Global Collaborative Co-Financing Platform, which the World Bank and nine other multilateral development banks launched in 2024.

Partnerships are crucial

The value of co-financing is clearest on the ground. Across regions, co-financed projects are expanding energy access, strengthening transport networks, improving health and education systems, and supporting resilient recovery. These investments demonstrate that when institutions pool resources, share risks, and align procedures, ambition turns into durable results.

The Global Collaborative Co-Financing Platform helps enable such collaborations. The Platform is designed to connect partners around concrete projects, increase transparency, and reduce the administrative burden on client countries. Participation now includes key bilateral partners and other co-financiers. The Platform is also supporting flagship efforts such as Mission 300, the World Bank’s joint initiative with the African Development Bank to expand electricity access to 300 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030.

Covering more than 233 projects—22 of which have already found a match for co-financing—the Global Collaborative Co-Financing Platform is promoting transparency, coordination, and more connections, while helping reduce duplication and unlock additional capital for development priorities that matter most.

Building what comes next—together

The progress documented in Building Together confirms that co-financing works. The Global Collaborative Co-Financing Platform shows that we can institutionalize collaboration at scale. The task now is to align around a shared vision that allows us to go further—together.

In a world of constrained resources and rising needs, co-financing is proof that multilateralism can deliver. By joining forces with clarity, flexibility, and shared purpose, we can help countries build resilience, create jobs, and expand opportunity at the scale the moment demands.

“Credit: World Bank Group. All rights reserved”