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About The World Bank
About The World Bank
What is the difference between the Bank and the World Bank Group?
The term "World Bank" refers only to the International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). The term "World Bank
Group" incorporates five closely associated entities that work collaboratively toward poverty
reduction: the World Bank (IBRD and IDA), and three other agencies, the International Finance
Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International
Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). To learn more about each institutions' role,
visit the World Bank Group.
FAQs
Who runs the Bank? What are the Boards of Governors and Executive Directors, and
how are they selected?
The Board of Executive Directors and the president of the Bank—who serves as chairman of
the board—are responsible for the conduct of the general operations of the Bank, oversee the work
of the Bank on a daily basis, and perform their duties under powers delegated to them by the Board
of Governors. The directors meet twice a week in Washington, D.C., to approve new loans and
review bank operations and policies.
The Board of Governors is made up of shareholders—187 member countries—who are the ultimate
policymakers at the Bank. Generally, the governors are member countries' ministers of finance or
ministers of development. They meet once a year at the Annual Meetings of the Boards of Governors
of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund to set the overall policies of the
institution, review country membership and perform other tasks. Because the governors meet only
annually, they delegate specific duties to the 24 Executive Directors, who work on-site at the Bank.
According to the Articles of Agreement, the five largest shareholders, France, Germany, Japan, the
United Kingdom, and the United States, each appoint an executive director, while other member
countries are represented by 19 executive directors who represent constituencies in several
countries. Each of the directors is elected by a country or group of countries every two years. It is
customary for election rules to ensure that a wide geographical balance is maintained on the board.
FAQs
Who is the president of the Bank, and how is the president elected?
Robert B. Zoellick is the 11th president of the Bank. He is chairman of the Bank's Board of
Executive Directors and is also president of the five interrelated organizations that make up the World
Bank Group. By tradition, the Bank president is a national of and is nominated by the executive
director of the largest shareholder in the bank, the United States. The president is elected by the
board of governors for a five-year, renewable term. By a long-standing, informal agreement, the
president of the Bank is a United States national, while the managing director of the International
Monetary Fund is a European.
To learn more about the Bank's past presidents, go to the Archives.
FAQs
What is the World Bank Inspection Panel?
It is an independent panel that was established in September 1993 to help ensure that our
operations adhere to our operational policies and procedures. The panel allows people who think
they may have been adversely affected by a Bank-supported project or projects to ask for an
investigation, which is called a request for inspection.
FAQs
How many people work for the Bank, and where do they come from?
Some 10,000 development professionals from nearly every country in the world work at the
Bank in Washington, D.C., or in our more than 100 Country Offices. We are economists, educators,
environmental scientists, financial analysts, anthropologists, engineers and many others.
Approximately 3,000 of us work in country offices in the developing world. We apply our skills and the
Bank's resources to bridge the economic divide between poor and rich countries, to turn rich country
resources into poor country growth, and to achieve sustainable poverty reduction.
FAQs
Does the Bank make a profit and, if so, what is done with it?
We often do have a surplus at the end of the fiscal year, which is earned from the interest rates
charged on some loans and from fees charged for some of our services. Some of the surplus goes to
IDA—the part of the bank that provides grants and interest free loans to the world's poorest
countries. The rest of the surplus is either used for debt relief for heavily indebted poor countries,
added to financial reserves, or helps us respond to unforeseen humanitarian crises.
FAQs
Why is there still so much poverty after 60 years of the Bank's existence? Doesn't that
show you have failed in your mission to free the world of poverty?
For the Bank, the bottom line is that there has been progress, but there has not been enough.
We continue to do all we can to make sure successful projects and approaches are shared more
widely so there's a greater impact on poverty reduction. At the same time, we've learned from past
mistakes and constantly work to improve our policies and programs. While poverty still exists, much
progress has been made:
During the past 40 years, life expectancy in developing countries has risen by 20
years—about as much as was achieved in all of human history prior to the mid-20th century.
During the past 30 years, adult illiteracy in the developing world has been nearly
halved to 25 percent.
During the past 20 years, the absolute number of people living on less than US$1 a
day has begun to fall for the first time, even as the world's population has grown by 1.6 billion
people.
During the last decade, growth in the developing world has outpaced that in
developed countries, helping to provide jobs and boost revenues poor countries' governments
need to provide essential services.
FAQs
Why is there so much criticism of the Bank, and why did protests against the Bank
occur?
Our role in development and in the wider globalization of the world's economy has often been
misunderstood. On one hand, this occurred because we did not explain the Bank's mission or our
work very well. On the other, critics tried to blame the bank for any or all of the perceived problems
associated with globalization—the growing integration of economies and societies around the world
resulting from increased flows of goods, services, capital, technology, and ideas—an economic force
that the Bank does not control. Also, protests drew worldwide attention to the problem of extremely
high multilateral debt levels carried by very poor countries, which high-income countries ultimately
agreed were unsustainable and stifled the ability of poor countries to both pay those debts and
combat poverty. This led the Bank and International Monetary Fund to form the Debt Initiative for
Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) and to further financial pledges by high-income countries to
assist the Bank to carry out debt-relief efforts for heavily indebted poor countries.
FAQs