World Bank

 The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to countries for capital programs.

 The World Bank was created at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

 The IBRD and the International Development Association, IBRD’s concessional lending arm, are collectively known as the World Bank.

 The World Bank is a component of the World Bank Group, which is part of the United Nations system

The aim of World Bank is to

1. End extreme poverty - reducing share of global population that lives in extreme poverty to 3 percent by 2030,

2. Promote shared prosperity - by increasing the incomes of the poorest 40 percent of people in every country and

3. Provide sustainable development.

 All decisions of World Bank will be guided to the promotion of foreign investment and international trade and to the facilitation of capital investment.

 The World Bank Group engages with middle-income countries (MICs) both as clients and shareholders.

 The World Bank is an essential partner to MICs, which represent more than 60% of IBRD’s portfolio.

 Together with the World Health Organization, the World Bank administers the International Health Partnership (IHP+).

 IHP+ is a group of partners committed to improving the health of citizens in developing countries.

 Clean Air Initiative (CAI) is a World Bank initiative to advance innovative ways to improve air quality in cities through partnerships in selected regions of the world by sharing knowledge and experiences.

 Reports released - Commodity markets outlook, Doing business report, Global economic prospects, Global financial development report, International debt statistics, World development report, World development indicators, Poverty and shared prosperity.

2. World Bank group

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

The organizations are,

1. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).

2. International Development Association (IDA).

3. International Finance Corporation (IFC).

4. Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).

5. International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

 While five institutions have their own country membership, governing boards, and articles of agreement, they work as one to serve our partner countries.

 The IBRD and IDA provide loans at preferential rates to member countries, as well as grants to the poorest countries.

 IFC, MIGA, and ICSID focus on strengthening the private sector in developing countries by providing financing, technical assistance, political risk insurance, and settlement of disputes to private enterprises, including financial institutions.

 IFC established in 1956, provides various forms of financing without sovereign guarantees, primarily to the private sector.

 ICSID, established in 1965, works with governments to reduce investment risk.

 MIGA, established in 1988, provides insurance against certain types of risk, including political risk, primarily to the private sector.

3. International Bank for Reconstruction and development

 IBRD is a global development cooperative owned by 189 member countries and it is the largest development bank in the world.

 It is headquartered in Washington, D.C.

 It was established in 1944 with the mission of financing the reconstruction of European nations devastated by World War II.

 It supports the World Bank Group’s mission by providing loans, guarantees, risk management products, and advisory services to middle-income and creditworthy low-income countries.

 IBRD finances investments across all sectors and provides technical support and expertise at each stage of a project.

 IBRD places special emphasis on supporting lower-middle-income countries as they move up the economic chain, graduating from IDA to become clients of IBRD.

 It will also help coordinating responses to regional and global challenges.

 The Bank's member governments are shareholders which contribute paid-in capital and have the right to vote on its matters.

 In addition to these contributions, the IBRD acquires most of its capital by borrowing on international capital markets through bond issues.

 Each member state of IBRD should be also a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and only members of IBRD are allowed to join other institutions within the Bank (such as IDA).