World Bank or IBRD:
1. Its mission was redirected to help developing countries grow faster and
provide a higher living standard for their people.
2. The World Bank made loans to developing countries for dams and other
electrical-generating plants, and other large projects. These projects were
intended to lower costs for private businesses and to attract investors.
3. Beginning in 1968 the World Bank focused on low-cost loans for health,
education, and other basic needs of the world’s poor.
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development or World Bank, specialized
United Nations agency established at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944
In the early period of the World Bank's existence, loans were granted chiefly to
European countries and were used for the reconstruction of industries damaged or
destroyed during World War II. Since the late 1960s, however, most loans have been
granted to economically developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The
bank has given particular attention to projects that could directly benefit the poorest
people in developing nations by helping them to raise their productivity and to gain
access to such necessities as safe water and waste-disposal facilities, health care,
family-planning assistance, nutrition, education, and housing.
Sources of fund:
Members of the World Bank must buy shares of the capital stock of the bank. The
minimum number of shares that a member nation must purchase varies according to
the relative strength of its national economy. Currently, the United States is the largest
shareholder, followed by Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, and France.
The bank’s working funds are derived from sales of its interest-bearing bonds and
notes in capital markets of the world, from repayment of earlier loans, and from
profits on its own operations. It has earned profits every year since 1947.
All powers of the bank are vested in a board of governors, comprising one governor
appointed by each member nation. The board meets at least once annually. The
governors delegate most of their powers to 24 executive directors, who meet regularly
at the central headquarters of the bank in Washington, D.C. Five of the executive
directors are appointed by the five member states that hold the largest number of
capital shares in the bank. The remaining 19 directors are elected by the governors
from the other member nations and serve two-year terms. The executive directors are
headed by the president of the World Bank, whom they elect for a five-year term, and
who must be neither a governor nor a director. The bank currently has 184 members.
