Company and project status

Project status labels at the multilateral development banks

Q: How many stages are in the African Development Bank project cycle?

Six, three in preparation and three in execution.

Last checked 7 November 2026 · 6 sources

Short answer

Each multilateral development bank uses its own project status labels. The EBRD lists nine, from Exploratory to Completed or Cancelled ¹. The Inter-American Development Bank uses Preparation, Implementation, Closed and Cancelled ³. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank sorts projects as Proposed, Approved, On Hold or Terminated and Cancelled ⁴. The African Development Bank describes a six-stage cycle ⁵. The World Bank's API returned four labels on 7 November 2026: Closed, Active, Dropped and Pipeline ⁶.

EBRD statuses: Nine, from Exploratory to Completed or Cancelled ¹
IDB statuses: Preparation, Implementation, Closed, Cancelled ³
AIIB statuses: Proposed, Approved, On Hold, Terminated or Cancelled ⁴
AfDB cycle: Six stages, three in preparation and three in execution ⁵
World Bank records: 22,729 in the API on 7 November 2026 ⁶
When a deal binds at the EBRD: At signing ²

Labels side by side

Bank	Before approval	Approved and running	Ended
EBRD	Exploratory, Passed Concept Review, Passed Structure Review, Passed Final Review ¹	Board Approved, Signed, Implementing ¹	Completed, Cancelled ¹
Inter-American Development Bank	Preparation ³	Implementation ³	Closed, Cancelled ³
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank	Proposed ⁴	Approved ⁴	Terminated or Cancelled ⁴
African Development Bank	Identification, preparation, evaluation ⁵	Negotiation and Board approval, implementation ⁵	Retrospective evaluation ⁵
World Bank	Pipeline ⁶	Active ⁶	Closed, Dropped ⁶

EBRD: the most detailed sequence

The EBRD project list filters by nine statuses ¹. Its financing page explains the main steps behind them ².

Concept review: management approves the concept and overall structure, and the EBRD and the client usually sign a mandate letter ².
Final review: after the basic business deal, including a signed term sheet, is negotiated and due diligence is substantially done ².
Board approval: the President and the Operations team present the project to the Board, except where approval has been delegated to management ².
Signing: the EBRD and the client sign the deal and it becomes legally binding ².
Disbursement: funds move to the client once repayment conditions are agreed and the Bank's conditions are met ².

Approved is not the same as signed or disbursed

At the EBRD, Board Approved and Signed are separate statuses, and only signing makes the deal legally binding ^1,2. Money moves later, at disbursement, once the Bank's conditions are met ². So a project shown as approved may not yet have a binding agreement.

At the African Development Bank, negotiation covers the measures written into the legal agreement between the Bank and the recipient, and formal approval is by the Board of Directors ⁵. Implementation is the responsibility of the country or recipient ⁵.

Inter-American Development Bank records

The IDB project search filters by country, status, approval date and total cost ³. On 7 November 2026, operations approved on 4 November 2026 already showed the status Implementation, with total costs listed from 230,000.00 to 500,000,000.00 ³. An operation approved on 6 November 2026 in the Dominican Republic, with a total cost of 800,000.00, showed Implementation as well ³. So at the IDB, the Implementation label can appear from the approval date.

AIIB and the African Development Bank

The AIIB groups its project pages into Approved Projects, Proposed Projects, On Hold and Terminated or Cancelled Projects, with a separate list of approved Special Funds grants ⁴. It states that it began operations in Beijing in 2016 and has 111 approved members ⁴.

The African Development Bank describes six stages: identification, preparation, evaluation, negotiation and Board approval, implementation, and a retrospective evaluation ⁵. In that last stage, a Bank team compares the initial mandate with the objectives achieved ⁵. The Bank publishes appraisal reports, completion reports and completion report reviews alongside ⁵.

World Bank counts as a check

The World Bank Projects API returned 22,729 records on 7 November 2026 ⁶. By status it showed 14,602 Closed, 2,666 Active, 1,909 Dropped and 700 Pipeline ⁶. These four counts add up to 19,877, so 2,852 records carried no status facet in that response ⁶. Quote the total and the status counts together with the query date.

World Bank status	Records on 7 November 2026
Closed	14,602 ⁶
Active	2,666 ⁶
Dropped	1,909 ⁶
Pipeline	700 ⁶

Common questions

What does Signed mean on an EBRD project?

The EBRD and the client have signed the deal and it is legally binding ². It comes after Board Approved in the status list ¹.

What does Implementation mean at the IDB?

It is the status after preparation. Recently approved IDB operations showed Implementation from their approval date ³.

What does Dropped mean at the World Bank?

It is one of four status labels in the World Bank Projects API, with 1,909 records on 7 November 2026 ⁶.

How many stages are in the African Development Bank project cycle?

Six, three in preparation and three in execution ⁵.

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Sources

Development bank project status explained
What pipeline, active, closed and dropped mean on World Bank project records, how they map to the project cycle, and which documents confirm each stage.
How to read an as-of date
How to tell the date a record was last updated from the date an event took effect, with examples from court, parliament, company and World Bank records.
How to check the current status of a public matter
A five-step method to find the official record for a court case, bill or company, read its latest dated entry and spot what the record leaves out.
Company status terms compared
What active, dormant, in administration, liquidation, struck off, dissolved and deregistered mean on company registers in the UK, Australia and the US.