World Bank

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WORLD BANK

History

The World Bank was created during World War II at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.

After the war, World Bank's goal was to help European countries with post-war

reconstruction. Its first loan of $250 million was given to France in 1947. During the

1980s, the World Bank followed many directions leading from macroeconomic and debt

rescheduling issues to social and environmental issues.

The Bank started to be criticized because they didn't observe their own policies. Thus,

the quality of Bank operations was questioned. This criticism led to new reform and

renewal. Since then, the Bank has made a significant progress. In order to improve

internal efficiency and external effectiveness, the Bank made sure that all of its five

institutions have been working separately as well as in collaboration.

Today, the Bank is much bigger and broader with its focus primarily on

poverty reduction. It encourages poor countries growth by using resources from rich

countries. "The name World Bank is the name that has come to be used for the

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International

Development Association (IDA)" (www.worlbank.com.).

Members and Structure

The IBRD is made up of 184 member countries that are responsible for how the

organization is financed and how its money is spent. IDA is made up of 165 member

countries. In total, "The World Bank Group consist of five closely associated institutions,

all owned by member countries that carry ultimate decision-making power"

(www.worldbank.com). These include: IBRD, IDA, IFC, MIGA, and ICSID. The term

"World Bank" refers specifically to IBRD and IDA while the term "World Bank Group"

refers to all five institutions. Each of the five institutions plays a specific role in fighting

poverty and improving living standards in the developing world.

The Boards of Executive Directors are...