IBF Assignment:
World Bank
Professor: Mr. Kannan
Name: Harish
Muralidhar
Roll No: 39
History
Since inception in 1944, the World Bank has expanded from a single
institution to a closely associated group of five development institutions.
Our mission evolved from the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD) as facilitator of post-war reconstruction and
development to the present day mandate of worldwide poverty alleviation
in close coordination with our affiliate, the International Development
Association, and other members of the World Bank Group, the
International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Guarantee
Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for the Settlement of
Investment Disputes (ICSID)..
The World Bank is a vital source of financial and technical assistance to
developing countries around the world. Our mission is to fight poverty
with passion and professionalism for lasting results and to help people
help themselves and their environment by providing resources, sharing
knowledge, building capacity and forging partnerships in the public and
private sectors.
Each institution plays a different but collaborative role in advancing the
vision of inclusive and sustainable globalization. The IBRD aims to reduce
poverty in middle-income and creditworthy poorer countries, while IDA
focuses on the world's poorest countries.
Their work is complemented by that of the International Finance
Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and
the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
The World Bank, established in 1944, is headquartered in Washington, D.C.
We have more than 10,000 employees in more than 100 offices worldwide.
Innovating from Within
To ensure countries continue to have access to the best global expertise and
cutting-edge knowledge, the World Bank Group is revising its programs to
assist the poor, as well as its range of financing options, to meet pressing
development priorities.
The three pillars of these efforts:
Results: The World bank is continuing to sharpen its focus on
helping developing countries deliver measurable results.
Reform: New reforms at the World Bank Group are aimed at
improving every aspect of our work: the way projects are designed
(investment lending), how information is made available (access to
information), and how the staff is deployed to best assist governments
and communities (decentralization).
Resources: Together, they have embarked on a campaign to secure a
capital increase in 2010 -- to ensure member countries continue to have a
strong financial partner that can meet the challenges of an ever-evolving
world.
Challenge
At the World Bank they have made the world's challenge—to reduce global
poverty—their challenge.
The Bank focuses on achievement of the Millennium Development Goals
that call for the elimination of poverty and sustained development. The
goals provide them with targets and yardsticks for measuring results.
Their mission is to help developing countries and their people reach the
goals by working with their partners to alleviate poverty. They address
global challenges in ways that advance an inclusive and sustainable
globalization—that overcome poverty, enhance growth with care for the
environment, and create individual opportunity and hope.
Six strategic themes drive their efforts. By focusing on these strategic
themes, the Bank delivers technical, financial and other assistance to those
most in need and where it can have the greatest impact and promote
growth: to the poorest countries, fragile states and the Arab world; to
middle-income countries; to solving global public goods issues; and to
delivering knowledge and learning services.
Operations
The World Bank's two closely affiliated entities—the International Bank for
Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International
Development Association (IDA)—provide low or no interest loans (credits)
and grants to countries that have unfavorable or no access to international
credit markets.
Fund Generation
IBRD lending to developing countries is primarily financed by selling
AAA-rated bonds in the world's financial markets. While IBRD earns
a small margin on this lending, the greater proportion of its income
comes from lending out its own capital. This capital consists of
reserves built up over the years and money paid in from the Bank's
185 member country shareholders. IBRD’s income also pays for
World Bank operating expenses and has contributed to IDA and debt
relief.
Loans
Through the IBRD and IDA, the World Bank offers two basic types of
loans and credits: investment operations and development policy
operations. Countries use investment operations for goods, works
and services in support of economic and social development projects
in a broad range of economic and social sectors. Development policy
operations (formerly known as adjustment loans) provide quick-
disbursing financing to support a country’s policy and institutional
reforms.
Trust Funds and Grants
Donor governments and a broad array of private and public
institutions make deposits in Trust funds that are housed at the
World Bank. These donor resources are leveraged for a broad range
of development initiatives. The initiatives vary significantly in size
and complexity, ranging from multibillion dollar arrangements—
such as Carbon Finance; the Global Environment Facility; the Heavily
Indebted Poor Countries Initiative; and the Global Fund to Fight
AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria—to much smaller and simpler
freestanding ones.
The Bank also mobilizes external resources for IDA concessionary
financing and grants, as well as funds for non-lending technical
assistance and advisory activities to meet the special needs of
developing countries, and for co-financing of projects and programs.
IDA grants—which are either funded directly or managed through
partnerships—have been used to:
o Relieve the debt burden of heavily indebted poor countries
o Improve sanitation and water supplies
o Support vaccination and immunization programs to reduce the
incidence of communicable diseases like malaria
o Combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic
o Support civil society organizations
o Create initiatives to cut the emission of greenhouse gases
Analytic and Advisory Services
While they are best known as a financier, another of their roles is to
provide analysis, advice and information to our member countries so
they can deliver the lasting economic and social improvements their
people need. They do this in various ways. One is through economic
research and data collection on broad issues such as the environment,
poverty, trade and globalization, another is through country-specific,
non-lending activities such as economic and sector work, where they
evaluate a country's economic prospects by examining its banking
systems and financial markets, as well as trade, infrastructure,
poverty and social safety net issues, for example.
