What is the World Bank

At the same time as the IMF was created, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), more commonly known as the World Bank, was set up in 1945 to promote long-term economic development.

We live in a world so rich that global income is more than $31 trillion a year. In this world, the average person in some countries earns more than $40,000 a year. But in this same world, 2.8 billion people - more than half the people in developing countries - live on less than $700 a year. Of these, 1.2 billion earn less than $1 a day.

As a result, 33,000 children die every day in developing countries. In these countries, each minute more than one woman dies during childbirth. Poverty keeps more than 100 million children, most of them girls, out of school.

The challenge of reducing these levels of poverty, while the population continues to grow - by an estimated 3 billion people over the next 50 years - is enormous.

The World Bank works to bridge this divide and turn rich country resources into poor country growth. One of the world’s largest sources of development assistance, the World Bank supports the efforts of developing country governments to build schools and health centers, provide water and electricity, fight disease, and protect the environment.

The World Bank is not a “bank” in the common sense. It is one of the United Nations’ specialized agencies, and is made up of 184 member countries. These countries are jointly responsible for how the institution is financed and how its money is spent. Along with the rest of the development community, the World Bank centers its efforts on the reaching the Millennium Development Goals, agreed to by UN members in 2000 and aimed at sustainable poverty reduction.

The "World Bank" is the name that has come to be used for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Together these organizations provide low-interest loans, interest-free credit, and grants to developing countries.

In 2003 the World Bank provided $18.5 billion and worked in more than 100 developing countries, bringing finance and technical expertise toward helping them reduce poverty. These countries have 35-40 years to repay loans, with a 10-year grace period.

Some 10.000 development professionals from nearly every country in the world work in the World Bank's Washington DC headquarters or in its 109 country offices.

The Bank is currently involved in more than 1,800 projects in virtually every sector and developing country. These are as diverse as providing microcredit in Bosnia Herzegovina and raising AIDS awareness in communities in Guinea, supporting education of girls in Bangladesh and improving health care delivery in Mexico, helping East Timor rebuild upon independence or India after a devastating earthquake.

The IMF and the World Bank Group complement each other's work. While the IMF's focus is chiefly on macroeconomic performance, and on macroeconomic and financial sector policies, the World Bank is concerned mainly with longer-term development and poverty reduction issues. Its activities include lending to developing countries and countries in transition to finance infrastructure projects, the reform of particular sectors of the economy, and broader structural reforms. The IMF, in contrast, provides financing not for particular sectors or projects but for general support of a country's balance of payments and international reserves while the country takes policy action to address its difficulties.