The World Bank is an international organization that offers loans and funding to developing governments in order to pursue developmental and capital projects, with the overarching goal of ending poverty.
Mission and Purpose
The World Bank Group has set two goals for the world to achieve by 2030:[1]
- End extreme poverty by decreasing the percentage of people living on less than $1.90 a day to no more than 3%
- Promote shared prosperity by fostering the income growth of the bottom 40% for every country
The World Bank is a source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. They are not a bank in the ordinary sense but a unique partnership to reduce poverty and support development. The World Bank Group comprises five institutions managed by their member countries.
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Origins and Development
Established in 1944, the World Bank Group is headquartered in Washington, D.C. We have more than 10,000 employees in more than 120 offices worldwide.[2]
Organizational Structure, Membership, and Funding
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Specializations, Methods and Tools
The World Bank provides low-interest loans, zero to low-interest credits, and grants to developing countries. These support a wide array of investments in such areas as education, health, public administration, infrastructure, financial and private sector development, agriculture, and environmental and natural resource management. Some projects are cofinanced with governments, other multilateral institutions, commercial banks, export credit agencies, and private sector investors.
The Bank also provides or facilitate financing through trust fund partnerships with bilateral and multilateral donors. Many partners have asked the Bank to help manage initiatives that address needs across a wide range of sectors and developing regions.[3]
Major Projects and Events
The World Bank supports developing countries through policy advice, research and analysis, and technical assistance. Analytical work often underpins World Bank financing and helps inform developing countries’ own investments. In addition, the organization supports citizen and community capacity development in the countries it serves. They also sponsor, host, or participate in many conferences and forums on issues of development, often in collaboration with partners.
To ensure that countries can access the best global expertise and help generate cutting-edge knowledge, the Bank is constantly seeking to improve the way it shares its knowledge and engages with clients and the public at large. Key priorities include:
- Results: continued efforts to sharpen their focus on helping developing countries deliver measurable results.[4]
- Reform: working to improve every aspect of our work: how projects are designed, how information is made available (Access to Information), and how to bring our operations closer to client governments and communities.[5]
- Open Development: offering a growing range of free, easy-to-access tools, research and knowledge to help people address the world's development challenges.[6] For example, the Open Data website offers free access to comprehensive, downloadable indicators about development in countries around the globe. World Bank Live also makes discussions open to participants worldwide [7] - a key part of theSpring and Annual Meetings with the International Monetary Fund.[8]
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Analysis and Lessons Learned
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Publications
All research and publications are available at https://www.worldbank.org/en/research
See Also
Afghanistan National Solidarity Program
The Rekompak Programme: Community-Driven Development After the 2004 Tsunami (Aceh, Indonesia)
Participatory Budgeting Madagascar
References
[2] http://www.worldbank.org/en/about/what-we-do
[3] https://www.worldbank.org/en/about/partners
[4] http://www.worldbank.org/results
[5] http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTABOUTUS/0,,contentMDK:23067074~menuPK:8336891~pagePK:50004410~piPK:36602~theSitePK:29708,00.html [BROKEN LINK]
[6] http://www.worldbank.org/open/
[7] https://live.worldbank.org/
[8] https://www.imf.org/external/index.htm
External Links
Home Page http://www.worldbank.org/
Open Data Site https://data.worldbank.org/