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.

What one can read on the official WB's web page is that 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 should support 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 supports both developed and developing countries with lending, guarantees, analytic and advisory work, debt relief, capacity enhancement, and global monitoring and advocacy."

But in fact the World Bank continues to make the poor countries poorer. "Its loan conditions require countries to grow food for export rather than local sustenance. Currently 80% of all malnourished children in developing countries live where farmers must grow export crops like nuts, mangoes, or coffee, rather than food for their communities.
The World Bank, one of the most powerful agents of economic globalisation, enforces policies that sacrifice human and labour rights and the environment to the dictates of multinational corporations and powerful governments. The World Bank along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), encourages the privatisation of government services, requires the weaking of labour laws, and undermines small business and farmers. Trough its devastating structural adjustment lending, the Bank encourages poor countries to increase fees for health and education by requiring the cutting of spending on vital government services. With the help of the World Bank and the IMF, corporate giants have become richer while most of the world's people are poorer.
The Bank has also been criticized for its role in financing projects that have been socially and environmentally detrimental to the human rights and natural environment."

Transition
During the 1980s, the Bank was pushed in many directions: early in the decade, the Bank was brought face to face with macroeconomic and debt rescheduling issues; later in the decade, social and environmental issues assumed center stage, and an increasingly vocal civil society accused the Bank of not observing its own policies in some high profile projects.
To address concerns about the quality of Bank operations, the Wapenhans Report was released and soon after, steps toward reform were taken, including the creation of an Inspection Panel to investigate claims against the Bank. However, criticism increased, reaching a peak in 1994 at the Annual Meetings in Madrid. Despite increasing criticism and appeals from numerous civic organizations and governments in the North and South, the World Bank continues to increase its rate of structural adjustment and harmful lending.

History, Organisational structure
Conceived during World War II at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, the World Bank initially helped rebuild Europe after the war. Its first loan of $250 million was to France in 1947 for post-war reconstruction.

The World Bank Group
The "World Bank" is the name that has come to be used for the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA). Together these organizations provide low-interest loans, interest-free credit, and grants to developing countries. In addition to IBRD and IDA, three other organizations make up the World Bank Group. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) promotes private sector investment by supporting high-risk sectors and countries. The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) provides political risk insurance (guarantees) to investors in and lenders to developing countries. And the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) settles investment disputes between foreign investors and their host countries.

The World Bank is owned by 184 countries. Under the Articles of Agreement of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), to become a member of the Bank a country must first join the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Membership in IDA, IFC and MIGA are conditional on membership in IBRD.

Each member country is represented by a Board of Governors. The Governors carry ultimate decision-making power in the World Bank. They meet annually to decide on key Bank policy issues, admit or suspend country members, decide on changes in the capital stock, determine the distribution of the IBRD's net income, and endorse financial statements and budgets.

The World Bank currently has 24 Executive Directors based in Washington, D.C. The Articles of Agreement provide that five of these directors represent the member countries having the largest number of shares. These countries are: France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The World Bank is run like a cooperative, with its member countries as shareholders. The number of shares a country has is based roughly on the size of its economy. The United States is the largest single shareholder, with 16.41 percent of votes, followed by Japan (7.87 percent), Germany (4.49 percent), the United Kingdom (4.31 percent), and France (4.31 percent). The remaining 19 Executive Directors represent constituencies; each is elected by a country or group of countries every two years. The rest of the shares are divided among the other member countries.

The Executive Directors and the President of the World Bank-- who serves as Chairman of the Board-- are responsible for the conduct of the Bank's general operations and perform their duties under powers delegated by the Board of Governors.

The Bank's president is, by tradition, a national of the largest shareholder, the United States. Elected for a five-year renewable term, the president of the World Bank chairs meetings of the Board of Directors and is responsible for overall management of the Bank. The current president of the World Bank Group is Mr. James D. Wolfensohn who has been president since 1995.

"Our dream is a world free of poverty"

The Goals
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), agreed to by 189 nations in 2002 at the United Nations Millennium Summit, embody an unprecedented level of consensus on what is needed for sustainable poverty reduction. The Goals set specific targets toward which the entire development community-donors and recipients, alike-would work:

1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
6. Ensure environmental sustainability
7. Develop a global partnership for development

Sector Strategies
A guiding framework for assistance applies not just country by country, but sector by sector. Sector strategies help shape the Bank's approach and activities in a given sector or thematic area, identifying aspects of relatively weak country performance for priority attention. They are completed-and revised every three years-after broad consultation, increasingly open to online participation as well.
The Bank recently released new sector strategies on Forests, Water Resources, Rural Development, Environment, Gender, Information and Communications Technologies and Private Sector Development.
Additional Sector Strategies are available on:

• Anti-corruption
• Education
• Governance & Public Sector Reform
• Health, Nutrition and Population (See also Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Program for Africa)
• Mining (Regional Strategies)
• Urban & Local Government
• Water Resources Management

Evaluation and Oversight
The Bank has a number of internal and external monitoring systems.

• The oldest and largest is the Operations Evaluation Department, created some 30 years ago, which reports directly to member countries on the Bank's performance.
• In 1993, members created an independent inspection panel to respond to concerns of people affected by Bank projects and to make sure that safeguard policies are being enforced.
• Unlike OED, which reviews programs after completion, the Bank's internal Quality Assurance Group (QAG) monitors them during implementation when adjustments can still be made. An Internal Auditing Department oversees risk management and internal controls.
• In November 2000 the Corporate Committee on Fraud and Corruption Policy was created to ensure that the Bank Group develops anticorruption policies and strategies that contribute effectively to its poverty reduction goals. The Bank's corruption and fraud investigation unit is now known as the Department of Institutional Integrity (INT).