The World Bank
The World Bank is a global organization created in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference alongside the International Monetary Fund. The World Bank has two divisions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association. They provide loans and grants, primarily to poorer countries, that are financed by wealthier nations. Currently, they have 184 member countries, and their main goal is to reduce poverty. The World Bank plays an essential role in the global economy and strives to develop countries to benefit from international commerce and improve living standards. Read pages 7-11 and browse the other sections to become familiar with the World Bank's structure and purpose.
General operations of IBRD are delegated to a smaller group of representatives, the Board of Executive Directors. These same individuals serve ex officio on IDA's Board of Executive Directors and on IFC's Board of Directors under the Articles of Agreement for those two institutions. Members of MIGA's Board of Directors are elected separately, but it is customary for the directors of MIGA to be the same individuals as the executive directors of IBRD. Unlike the other four institutions, ICSID does not have a board. The president of the Bank Group serves as the chair of all four boards (and as the chair of ICSID's Administrative Council), but he or she has no voting power.
IBRD has 24 executive directors. The five largest shareholders – the United States, Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom – each appoint one executive director. The other countries are grouped into constituencies, each of which elects an executive director as its representative. The members themselves decide how they will be grouped. Some countries – China, the Russian Federation, and Saudi Arabia – form single-country constituencies. Multicountry constituencies more or less represent geographic regions, with some political and cultural factors determining exactly how they are constituted.
The executive directors are based at Bank Group headquarters in Washington, DC. They are responsible for making policy decisions affecting the Bank Group's operations and for approving all loans. The executive directors function in continuous session and meet as often as Bank Group business requires, although their regular meetings occur twice a week. Each executive director also serves on one or more standing committees: the Audit Committee, Budget Committee, Committee on Development Effectiveness, Personnel Committee, and Committee on Governance and Executive Directors' Administrative Matters.
The boards normally make decisions by consensus; however, the relative voting power of individual executive directors is based on the shares that are held by the countries they represent (figure 1.2). For more on the constituencies, voting power, and elections of the executive directors.
