The World Bank’s Development Marketplace (DM) competition took place in Washington this week. Begun in 1998, and held in DC about once every 18 months, DM is “a competitive grant program that funds innovative, small-scale development projects that deliver results and show potential to be expanded or replicated.” This year’s competition, entitled, "Innovation in Water, Sanitation, and Energy Services for Poor People," awarded $5 million to the best ideas that provide clean water, sanitation, and energy to local communities in developing countries lacking these basic services.

For those keeping score, projects focused on providing clean water won just over half the grants. Alternative energy projects – including solar, biomass, and human-powered – accounted for most of the rest, with only a handful of sanitation projects receiving funding. Africa was strongly represented, with 14 of the 30 winning projects coming from the region. The largest number of winners from a single country was India with five projects receiving funding.

While walking through the project stalls located in the World Bank’s grand atrium, though, I couldn’t help thinking that the initiatives around me were not getting the support they deserved. The World Bank has an annual budget of US $20 billion and is the largest foreign aid organization with a mission to reduce poverty. $5 million is only .025% of total annual expenditures, and most of that money didn’t even come from the Bank. Donors to this year’s Marketplace included the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Global Village Energy Project (GVEP).