world bank group

 

  • It is an international organization owned by member governments; although it makes profits, they are used to support continued efforts in poverty reduction.

  • [13] Technically the World Bank is part of the United Nations system,[14] but its governance structure is different: each institution in the World Bank Group is owned by its
    member governments, which subscribe to its basic share capital, with votes proportional to shareholding.

  • The World Bank Group (WBG) is a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to developing countries.

  • [10] Established: 4 July 1944; 78 years ago; Type: Intergovernmental organization; Legal status: Treaty; Purpose: Economic development, poverty elimination; Headquarters:
    1818 H Street Northwest, Washington D.C., U.S.[1]; Membership: 189 states (188 UN countries and Kosovo)[2]; President: David Malpass[3]; MD & CFO: Anshula Kant[4]; Main organ: Board of Directors[5]; Parent organization: United Nations History
    Founding[edit] The WBG came into formal existence on 27 December 1946 following international ratification of the Bretton Woods agreements, which emerged from the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference (1–22 July 1944).

  • [25] Criticism The World Bank has long been criticized by a range of non-governmental organizations and academics, notably including its former Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz,
    who is equally critical of the International Monetary Fund, the US Treasury Department, and the US and other developed country trade negotiators.

  • [17] World Bank Group agencies[edit] The World Bank Group consists of • the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), established in 1944, which provides
    debt financing based on sovereign guarantees; • the International Finance Corporation (IFC), established in 1956, which provides various forms of financing without sovereign guarantees, primarily to the private sector; • the International
    Development Association (IDA), established in 1960, which provides concessional financing (interest-free loans or grants), usually with sovereign guarantees; • the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), established
    in 1965, which works with governments to reduce investment risk; • the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), established in 1988, which provides insurance against certain types of risk, including political risk, primarily to the
    private sector.

  • [32] Investments[edit] The World Bank Group has also been criticized for investing in projects with human rights issues.

  • Critics state that even though IFC and MIGA have more of these standards than the World Bank, they mostly rely on private-sector clients to monitor their implementation and
    miss an independent monitoring institution in this context.

  • In 2019, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China questioned the World Bank about a loan in Xinjiang, China, that was used to buy high-end security gear, including
    surveillance equipment.

  • It is the largest and best-known development bank in the world and an observer at the United Nations Development Group.

  • [15] The World Bank Institute is the capacity development branch of the World Bank, providing learning and other capacity-building programs to member countries.

  • [15] The agencies of the World Bank are each governed by their Articles of Agreement that serves as the legal and institutional foundation for all their work.

  • Each director represents either one country (for the largest countries), or a group of countries.

  • [2] The institutions of the World Bank Group are all run by a board of governors meeting once a year.

  • The Management Response did not accept many of the EIR report’s conclusions, but the EIR served to alter the World Bank’s policies on oil, gas, and mining in important ways,
    as the World Bank documented in a recent follow-up report.

  • The term “World Bank” generally refers to just the IBRD and IDA, whereas the term “World Bank Group” or “WBG” is used to refer to all five institutions collectively.

  • [16] Because the U.S. exerts formal and informal influence over the Bank as a result of its vote share, control over the Presidency, and the Bank’s headquarters location in
    Washington, D.C., friends and allies of the U.S. receive more projects with more lenient terms.

  • Organizational structure Together with four affiliated agencies created between 1957 and 1988, the IBRD is part of the World Bank Group.

  • Loans or grants for specific projects are often linked to wider policy changes in the sector or the country’s economy as a whole.

  • [28] In Masters of Illusion: The World Bank and the Poverty of Nations (1996), Catherine Caufield argues that the assumptions and structure of the World Bank operation ultimately
    harm developing nations rather than promote them.

  • Even the loans are concessional since they are given to countries that have no access to international capital markets.

  • Critics point out that the Management Response weakened a key recommendation that indigenous peoples and affected communities should have to provide ‘consent for projects
    to proceed; instead, there would be ‘consultation’.

  • Membership gives certain voting rights that are the same for all countries but there are also additional votes that depend on financial contributions to the organization.

  • For example, a loan to improve coastal environmental management may be linked to the development of new environmental institutions at national and local levels and the implementation
    of new regulations to limit pollution.

  • Managing director[edit] The managing director of The World Bank is responsible for organizational strategy; budget and strategic planning; information technology; shared services;
    Corporate Procurement; General Services and Corporate Security; the Sanctions System; and the Conflict Resolution and Internal Justice System.

  • Several intellectuals in developing countries have argued that the World Bank is deeply implicated in contemporary modes of donor and NGO-driven imperialism and that its intellectual
    contribution functions, primarily, to seek to blame the poor for their condition.

  • To the World Bank, different nations and regions are indistinguishable and ready to receive the “uniform remedy of development”.

  • [24] Following the EIR process, the World Bank issued a revised Policy on Indigenous Peoples.

  • Daily, the World Bank Group is run by a board of 25 executive directors to whom the governours have delegated certain powers.

  • [20] Extractive Industries review[edit] After longstanding criticisms from civil society of the Bank’s involvement in the oil, gas, and mining sectors, the World Bank in July
    2001 launched an independent review called the Extractive Industries Review (EIR—not to be confused with Environmental Impact Report).

  • The World Bank published its Management Response to the EIR in September 2004[22] after extensive discussions with the board of directors.

  • The World Bank’s (the IBRD’s and IDA’s) activities focus on developing countries, in fields such as human development (e.g.

  • It also provided the foundation of the Osiander Committee in 1951, responsible for the preparation and evaluation of the World Development Report.

  • It provided around $98.83 billion in loans and assistance to “developing” and transition countries in the 2021 fiscal year.

 

Works Cited

[‘o “About the World Bank”. worldbank.org.
o ^ Jump up to:a b c “Member Countries”. World Bank Group. Retrieved 3 June 2016.
o ^ “David Malpass, a US Treasury official and Donald Trump’s pick, appointed World Bank president”. scroll.in. Retrieved
6 April 2019.
o ^ “SBI MD Anshula Kant appointed as MD, CFO of World Bank Group”. antopedia.org. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
o ^ “Board of Directors”. Web.worldbank.org. Retrieved 31 May 2010.
o ^ “RDSI Sign Gold”. United Nations Development Group.
Retrieved 27 May 2012.[dead link]
o ^ “Fiscal year data”. World Bank. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
o ^ The World Bank, Press release: “World Bank Group Commitments Rise Sharply in FY14 Amid Organizational Change”, July 1 2014, http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2014/07/01/world-bank-group-commitments-rise-sharply-in-fy14-amid-organizational-change
o ^
“2015 Development Policy Financing Retrospective – Results and Sustainability”. worldbank.org.
o ^ World bank – structured financial products (PDF). Washington: World bank. 5 April 2016. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022. Retrieved
5 November 2018.
o ^ “Member Countries”. World Bank. Retrieved 10 December 2019.
o ^ “Taiwan, China | Data”.
o ^ FAQ-About The World Bank, Worldbank.org.
o ^ The United Nations system: Principal Organs Archived 3 March 2016 at the Wayback
Machine, Colorado.edu.
o ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f “About Us”, wordbank.org, accessed 30 May 2007.
o ^ US Blocks Stronger African Voice At World Bank Retrieved 7 August 2007.
o ^ Clark Richard and Lindsay Dolan. “Pleasing the Principal: U.S.
Influence in World Bank Policymaking.” 2021. American Journal of Political Science 65(1): 36-51. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12531
o ^ “More Chinese at helm of international organisations”. The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 3 October
2018. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
o ^ “Indonesia’s president appoints World Bank’s Sri Mulyani as finance minister”. The Star. Retrieved 3 October 2018.
o ^ https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/people/a/anshula-kant
o ^ “Striking a Better Balance”,
worldbank.org, January 2004, accessed 30 May 2007.
o ^ “Striking a Better Balance”, Archived 13 November 2005 at the Wayback Machine, “World Bank Group Management Response” to “The World Bank Group and Extractive Industries: The Final Report of
the Extractive Industries Review: World Bank Group Management Response”,17 September 2004, accessed 30 May 2007.
o ^ “Oil, Gas, Mining, and Chemicals” (follow up report)[permanent dead link], accessed 30 May 2007.
o ^ “The Energy Tug of War” Archived
30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine, The New Internationalist, No. 373 (November 2004), accessed 30 May 2007.
o ^ “World Bank Operational Manual: Operational Policies: Indigenous Peoples” (Op 4.10), worldbank.org, July 2005, accessed 30 May
2007. Archived version from 7 May 2008
o ^ Jump up to:a b See Joseph Stiglitz, The Roaring Nineties, Globalization and Its Discontents, and Making Globalization Work.
o ^ “Microsoft Word – IFI Watch Bangladesh_Vol_1 No_1.doc” (PDF). Archived from
the original (PDF) on 8 November 2004. Retrieved 31 May 2010.
o ^ Perkins, John (2004). Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. p. 259. ISBN 0-452-28708-1.
o ^ For instance see David Moore’s edited book ‘The World Bank’, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Press, 2007
o ^ Korinna Horta (February 2013). “Most relevant review”. dandc.eu.
o ^ “Pressure grows on World Bank boss”. BBC News. 13 April 2007. Retrieved 29 June 2022.
o ^ “Integrity Vice Presidency – The Investigative Process”. Web.world
bank.org. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
o ^ Mychalejko, Cyril (23 January 2014). “Beyond Reform: It’s Time to Shut Down the World Bank”. Upside Down World. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
o ^ Malkin, Elisabeth (10 January 2014). “World Bank Is Criticized for
Honduran Loan”. The New York Times. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
o ^ Allen-Ebrahimian, Bethany (27 August 2019). “The World Bank Was Warned About Funding Repression in Xinjiang”. Foreign Policy. Retrieved 28 August 2019.
o ^ Allen-Ebrahimian, Bethany
(11 December 2019). “Scoop: China tried to get World Bank to fund surveillance in Xinjiang”. Axios. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
o ^ Allen-Ebrahimian, Bethany (14 August 2020). “Lawmakers demand answers from World Bank on Xinjiang loan”. Axios. Retrieved
14 August 2020.
Photo credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kjunstorm/4503599544/’]