Results and Performance of the World Bank Group 2011 (original) (raw)

Role of the World Bank Group in Ending Extreme Poverty and Sustainably Increasing Shared Prosperity

This paper summarizes the World Bank Group’s key projects undertaken in six developing regions around the world, as well as goals achieved and revised strategies in the fiscal year of 2016. It states that the region with the most progress was East Asia and Pacific whereby the region with the least progress was Africa and supports it with the needed analysis on economic, social and sustainable development indicators. Moreover is touches on the area of gender gap and the practices the World Bank Group is implementing to eliminate such a gap. As well it states how the World Bank Group is helping poor people and eliminating poverty around the globe through major strategies put forward. Finally the paper focuses on education as a key element that stimulates economic development and eliminates poverty which are key goals of the World Bank Group.

Impact of World Bank-Assisted Projects on Poverty Alleviation

Consilience: journal of sustainable development, 2022

The World Bank is an international financial institution responsible for issuing loans, grants, aids, etcetera to states and multinational corporations for the purpose of carrying out reconstruction and development projects and investments, respectively. Several criticisms have trailed the World Bank's project financing, especially with regards to the conditionality of economic restructuring usually imposed thereto. However, in 2013, the World Bank realigned its goal toward reducing poverty to less than 3 percent by 2030. Mechanisms such as the Poverty Reduction Strategic Paper (PRSP), Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) were created toward this end. It is in view of the foregoing that this paper examined the impact of World Bank assisted projects on poverty alleviation. This paper concluded that for the Bank to achieve its goal at the set date, a purposive approach must be adopted to ensure the participation of the various stakeholders in the poverty alleviation process. 1 "I want to see a world free from poverty. Poverty does not belong in a civilized human society. Its proper place is in a museum… Information and communications technology is changing the world more rapidly and more fundamentally than any other technology in human history. I would like to see all information available to all people everywhere (including the poorest, the most ignorant, and the most powerless) at all times, almost cost-free. Why can't we create a povertyfree world before the new century crosses the halfway mark?" Muhammad Yunus. 2000. Economist and founder of the Grameen Bank, Bangladesh. See, Muhammad Yunus, 'The Battle Against Poverty', Encyclopaedia Britannica Student and Home Edition (2010). 2 Technically, the seven millennium development goals are all aimed at the eradication of poverty because the various goals are means to which poverty eradication is an end. Consilience Herbert & Odeniyi: Impact of World Bank-Assisted Projects the World Bank's engagement of stakeholders, particularly people under the scourge of poverty, in development projects. The findings from this analysis will reveal the extent of the negative or positive impacts of the World Bank's transactions with Nigeria and other developing countries. Consequently, appropriate recommendations shall be made on the possible course of action that may be taken to remedy the situation.

Poverty reduction and the World Bank: progress in fiscal 1998

1999

The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the author(s) and should not be attributed in any manner to the World Bank, to its affiliated organizations, or to members of its Board of Executive Directors or the countries they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this publication and accepts no responsibility for any consequence of their use. The boundaries, colors, denominations, and other information shown on any map in this volume do not imply on the part of the World Bank Group any judgment on the legal status of any territory or the endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. The material in this publication is copyrighted. The World Bank encourages dissemination of its work and will normally grant permission promptly.

The World Bank Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network

2012

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

What the World Bank means by poverty reduction and why it matters

Staying Poor: Chronic Poverty and Development …, 2003

Critics of the World Bank have variously attributed its proclaimed commitment to poverty reduction to empty rhetoric, hypocrisy, incompetence, confusion, or overload in the absence of a coherent agenda. This article argues that the commitment is genuine, but that it is not a first order goal: poverty reduction is an intended consequence of its principal objective, the transformation of social and governmental relations and institutions in the developing world in order to generalize and facilitate capitalist accumulation on a global scale, and build capitalist hegemony through the promotion of tightly controlled forms of 'participation' and 'ownership'. This objective has been pursued consistently since the mid-1990s, with Wolfensohn as Director and Stiglitz while Chief Economist playing leading roles. It has been reflected in particular in the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) Initiative, the Comprehensive Development Framework, and PRSPs (Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers) as means of governing low-income countries. Once the character of the project is understood, its limitations and contradictions become apparent, but at the same time many of the criticisms advanced are seen to underestimate its logic and coherence, and proposals for reform arising from them are shown to be naïve.

World Bank. 2000. Entering the 21st Century

Regional Science and Urban Economics, 2001

Every year, the World Bank issues a new World Development Report. These reports contain a wide selection of development indicators for most countries, and emphasize a theme or set of development issues. Theme discussions typically are not burdened by the caveats and uncertainties that plague academic writing, and usually do not present a set of competing hypotheses in an ambiguous or agnostic manner. Rather, the WDR serves as a revelation from the Bank to its operational staff, its counterparts in client governments, and to the academy, offering a refined understanding of the forces that guide economic development. Unlike different versions of other documents endowed with near divine insight, WDRs are not stagnant repetitions of past doctrine. Rather, global development strategy as transmitted via WDR has changed markedly over time, though admitting past mistakes is rare. Instead, the Bank formally reiterates past analysis, and signals changes in thinking by altering emphasis, rather than formally abandoning old paradigms. Thus, WDR readers may be irritated by its pompous style, absence of self-doubt, and reluctance to admit past errors in judgment. Like its predecessors, WDR 1999-2000 is best swallowed in small pieces, and can be most appreciated as a Bank position paper, rather than an objective summary of research findings. Despite its style, WDR 1999-2000 is important work. As with all WDRs, the analysis is thoughtful, and a near cutting-edge policy perspective is presented. Virtually the only readers who will not emerge with a far better understanding of development issues, strategies, and recent research are those who have read a high proportion of the huge number of papers put out by the Bank on its website, and in 1 I am grateful to Richard Arnott and Andrew Morrison for valuable comments on an earlier draft of this review. Factual errors and misinterpretations, however, remain my own.