World Bank

World Bank, international organization affiliated with the United Nations (UN) and designed to finance projects that enhance the economic development of member states. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the bank is the largest source of financial assistance to developing countries. It also provides technical assistance and policy advice and supervises—on behalf of international creditors—the implementation of free-market reforms. Together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Trade Organization, it plays a central role in overseeing economic policy and reforming public institutions in developing countries and defining the global macroeconomic agenda.

Origins

Founded in 1944 at the UN Monetary and Financial Conference (commonly known as the Bretton Woods Conference), which was convened to establish a new, post-World War II international economic system, the World Bank officially began operations in June 1946. Its first loans were geared toward the postwar reconstruction of western Europe. Beginning in the mid-1950s, it played a major role in financing investments in infrastructural projects in developing countries, including roads, hydroelectric dams, water and sewage facilities, maritime ports, and airports.

The World Bank Group comprises five constituent institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The IBRD provides loans at market rates of interest to middle-income developing countries and creditworthy lower-income countries. The IDA, founded in 1960, provides interest-free long-term loans, technical assistance, and policy advice to low-income developing countries in areas such as health, education, and rural development. Whereas the IBRD raises most of its funds on the world’s capital markets, the IDA’s lending operations are financed through contributions from developed countries. The IFC, operating in partnership with private investors, provides loans and loan guarantees and equity financing to business undertakings in developing countries. Loan guarantees and insurance to foreign investors against loss caused by noncommercial risks in developing countries are provided by the MIGA. Finally, the ICSID, which operates independently of the IBRD, is responsible for the settlement by conciliation or arbitration of investment disputes between foreign investors and their host developing countries.

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From 1968 to 1981 the president of the World Bank was former U.S. secretary of defense Robert S. McNamara. Under his leadership the bank formulated the concept of “sustainable development,” which attempted to reconcile economic growth and environmental protection in developing countries. Another feature of the concept was its use of capital flows (in the form of development assistance and foreign investment) to developing countries as a means of narrowing the income gap between rich and poor countries. The bank has expanded its lending activities and, with its numerous research and policy divisions, has developed into a powerful and authoritative intergovernmental body.

Organization

The World Bank is related to the UN, though it is not accountable either to the General Assembly or to the Security Council. Each of the bank’s more than 180 member states are represented on the board of governors, which meets once a year. The governors are usually their countries’ finance ministers or central bank governors. Although the board of governors has some influence on IBRD policies, actual decision-making power is wielded largely by the bank’s 25 executive directors. Five major countries—the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France—appoint their own executive directors. The other countries are grouped into regions, each of which elects one executive director. Throughout the World Bank’s history, the bank president, who serves as chairman of the Executive Board, has been an American citizen.

Voting power is based on a country’s capital subscription, which is based in turn on its economic resources. The wealthier and more developed countries constitute the bank’s major shareholders and thus exercise greater power and influence. For example, in the early 21st century the United States exercised nearly one-sixth of the votes in the IBRD, more than double that of Japan, the second largest contributor. Because developing countries hold only a small number of votes, the system does not provide a significant voice for these countries, which are the primary recipients of World Bank loans and policy advice.

The bank obtains its funds from the capital subscriptions of member countries, bond flotations on the world’s capital markets, and net earnings accrued from interest payments on IBRD and IFC loans. Approximately one-tenth of the subscribed capital is paid directly to the bank, with the remainder subject to call if required to meet obligations.

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The World Bank is staffed by more than 10,000 people, roughly one-fourth of whom are posted in developing countries. The bank has more than 100 offices in member countries, and in many countries staff members serve directly as policy advisers to the ministry of finance and other ministries. The bank has consultative as well as informal ties with the world’s financial markets and institutions and maintains links with nongovernmental organizations in both developed and developing countries.

Debt and policy reform

The debt crisis of the early 1980s—during which many developing countries were unable to service their external debt to multilateral lending institutions, because of a slowdown in the world economy, high interest rates, a decline in commodity prices, and wide fluctuations in oil prices, among other factors—played a crucial role in the evolution of World Bank operations. The bank had become increasingly involved in shaping economic and social policies in indebted developing countries. As a condition of receiving loans, borrowing countries were required to implement stringent “structural adjustment programs,” which typically included severe cuts in spending for health and education, the elimination of price controls, the liberalization of trade, the deregulation of the financial sector, and the privatization of state-run enterprises. Although intended to restore economic stability, these programs, which were applied in a large number of countries throughout the developing world, frequently resulted in increased levels of poverty, mounting unemployment, and a spiraling external debt. In the wake of the debt crisis, the World Bank focused its efforts on providing financial assistance in the form of balance-of-payments support and loans for infrastructural projects such as roads, port facilities, schools, and hospitals. Although emphasizing poverty alleviation and debt relief for the world’s least developed countries, the bank has retained its commitment to economic stabilization policies that require the implementation of austerity measures by recipient countries.

The World Bank and the IMF played central roles in overseeing free-market reforms in eastern and central Europe after the fall of communism there in the 1980s and ’90s. The reforms, which included the creation of bankruptcy and privatization programs, were controversial because they frequently led to the closure of state-run industrial enterprises. “Exit mechanisms” to allow for the liquidation of so-called “problem enterprises” were put into place, and labour laws were modified to enable enterprises to lay off unneeded workers. The larger state enterprises often were sold to foreign investors or divided into smaller, privately owned companies. In Hungary, for example, some 17,000 businesses were liquidated and 5,000 reorganized in 1992–93, leading to a substantial increase in unemployment. The World Bank also provided reconstruction loans to countries that suffered internal conflicts or other crises (e.g., the successor republics of former Yugoslavia in the late 1990s). This financial assistance did not succeed in rehabilitating productive infrastructure, however. In several countries the macroeconomic reforms resulted in increased inflation and a marked decline in the standard of living.

The World Bank is the world’s largest multilateral creditor institution, and as such many of the world’s poorest countries owe it large sums of money. Indeed, for dozens of the most heavily indebted poor countries, the largest part of their external debt—in some cases constituting more than 50 percent—is owed to the World Bank and the multilateral regional development banks. According to some analysts, the burden of these debts—which according to the bank’s statutes cannot be canceled or rescheduled—has perpetuated economic stagnation throughout the developing world.