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World Bank Group
The World Bank was founded in July 1944 along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) at the Monetary and Financial Conference of the founding members of the United Nations in Bretton Woods (USA). Like the IMF, it is a specialised agency of the United Nations.
Its original goal was to promote reconstruction in the wake of the Second World War and to create stable currencies in conjunction with the IMF. Since the 1960s, its main task has been to fight poverty in the world and to help support businesses in developing and emerging countries and promote these countries' economic development. As the largest financer of development projects in the world and a provider of expertise it thus helps achieve international development goals.
The World Bank Group consists of five organisations:
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International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)
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International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)
Generally, when we speak of the World Bank, we are actually referring only to the IBRD and the IDA.
Spectrum of activities of the World Bank Group
The World Bank Group is based in Washington D.C. but it also has more than 120 country offices. The World Bank employs more than 10,000 people, around one third of whom work in cooperation countries. It is the largest financer of development cooperation projects. Loans are always tied to certain provisions to be met by the recipient country.
The World Bank is involved in virtually every sector and in all developing countries – from micro-loans in Bosnia and Herzegovina to promoting education for girls in Bangladesh, from improving health care delivery in Mexico to reconstruction programmes following an earthquake in India. It is also working on the HIPC debt relief initiative and is involved in the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative (MDRI).
On the initiative of the G8 states it was decided in 2005 to cancel all remaining debts to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank subsidiary IDA and the African Development Fund (AfDF) of countries qualifying for debt relief under the HIPC initiative, within the framework of the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative. The donor community agreed to provide additional funds to offset the financial losses to these institutions.
In the fiscal year 2019 the World Bank announced commitments of 62.3 billion US dollars towards projects in developing countries.
Organisation of the World Bank Group
The top-level decision-making body of the World Bank Group is the Board of Governors, to which every member appoints one Governor and one Alternate Governor. When decisions are taken, the voting rights of members are in proportion to their share of the capital of the bank.
The day-to-day business of the World Bank is pursued by the President and the 25 Executive Directors. The countries holding the largest shares of the Bank's capital (the USA, Japan, China, Germany, the United Kingdom and France) each nominate an Executive Director. Further Executive Directors are elected by the voting groups to which the other members belong.
In 1974, the Board of Governors of the World Bank and the IMF agreed to set up a joint committee for the transfer of resources to developing countries, the Development Committee (DC). This Committee advises the Boards of Governors of the Bank and the IMF on key development issues.
The World Bank also works in development research and regards the provision of knowledge as being at the heart of its mission. Every year it publishes a World Development Report on key issues in international cooperation.
More information
Contact
The World Bank
1818 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20433
USA
Phone: +1 / 202 / 4 73 10 00
Fax: +1 / 202 / 4 77 63 91
Information
External Links
- World Bank Group - external link, new window - Visit website
- World Bank, Office of the German Executive Director - external link, new window - Visit website