Globalization or the growing interdependence of countries has resulted from the increased

integration of trade, finance and ideas in a global marketplace. The main elements of this

integration include international trade and cross border investment flow. Globalization

started after the World War II but its pace rose after the 1980s. Apart from the technological

advances, increased liberalization of trade and capital markets also led to the spread of

globalization. The World Bank, IMF and WTO have also played a very important role in

the promotion of free trade which has aided the spread of globalization. In fact the three

institutions have played an important role in strengthening the forces of globalization.

Often protectionism hinders free trade and globalization. However, these international

financial institutions are acting to boost free trade in place of protectionism. WTO’s

purpose is the lowering of free trades and encouraging them to trade with each other. It

also works to promote fair competition between countries and promoting trade

liberalization for faster economic growth. In this way WTO and other international

financial institutions work to accelerate economic globalization. The IMF also works to

make globalization work in the developing or less developed parts of the world.

Globalization has brought multiple benefits in terms of global trade expansion and

economic growth. However, these benefits are not spread evenly across all the parts of the

world. In the African region, some countries have started benefitting from liberalization of

trade and exchange regimes with support and advice from the IMF. Since economic

globalization can be an effective solution to the poverty rates in Africa, IMF is working to

accelerate the rate of economic globalization in this region. Similarly, the World Bank also

has an important role to play in making globalization work better for the poorer parts of

the world. In this way, it is clear that the international financial institutions like WTO, IMF
and World Bank have aided the acceleration of globalization by working to spread its

benefits evenly to all parts of the world.