This year marks the 60th anniversary of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank's private sector arm. Created in 1956 in response to perceived capital limitations and structural challenges in the developing world, IFC is a catalyst for investment in private enterprise through its own investment and through the stimulation of private capital from other sources.
... See More + While its objectives have not significantly changed over time, the variety of tools and strategies IFC employs has evolved. The IFC's first loan was made in 1957 for $2 million to a Brazilian affiliate of German engineering company Siemens to finance the manufacture of electrical equipment. Loans to various private enterprises for manufacturing plants, aircraft repair facilities, mining operations, and steel plants soon followed.
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September 19, 2016 marked the 56th anniversary of the signing of the Indus Basin treaty by India and Pakistan. The agreement signified the end of a long dispute between the two countries and opened the door for increased economic development in the region.
... See More + The World Bank and its president at the time, Eugene Black, played an important role as mediator in the nearly decade long negotiation. This was not, however, the only time the nascent institution took on this role. A small number of prominent Bank-led mediation efforts in the 1950s illustrate how the Bank extended itself beyond the provision of loans in order to facilitate increased development. The World Bank's first foray into the mediation of international disputes was the result of an invitation to participate in failing negotiations between Iran and Great Britain about the proposed nationalization of Iran’s oil industry.
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The Bank first moved to put down roots in Eastern Africa in March 1965, when T. V. Andersen arrived in Nairobi. Over the next several months came a trickle of other recruits.
... See More + Harold Young took over as Acting Chief of Mission. Mary Sfeir quickly organized the clerical side of the Office and personified the spirit of Harambee (Swahili for ‘working together’). Douwe Groenveld arrived from Rome. Sandy Storrar and Dick Henderson, old hands in East Africa, came back to Nairobi to set up the Agricultural Development Service (ADS), a new departure in the Bank’s services to member countries. Pepe Morra took on the growing administrative headaches just before the end of 1965. The Agricultural Development Service, attached to the Nairobi Office, employed on long-term contract a limited number of men of proven agricultural and managerial competence under African conditions, making them available to governments or development agencies in Eastern Africa to assist in the execution of agricultural projects and in the training of African managers to run these projects later on. This exhibit was originally published in November 2004.
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The World Bank’s official name upon its establishment was the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development. As the name indicates, reconstruction came first: On May 9, 1947, an agreement was signed granting a reconstruction loan to France in the amount of 250 million dollars.
... See More + One of the World Bank’s first development loans was to the Corporacion de Fomento and the Empresa Nacional de Electricidad of Chile. This loan financed construction of two hydroelectric plants at Los Molles and Los Cipreses and helped to purchase equipment for the third plant, the Pilmaiquen Hydroelectric plant. The project consisted of a program for the purchase and importation by Fomento of agricultural machinery to increase the productivity of Chilean agriculture. It was part of a large-scale program of agricultural mechanization initiated by Fomento immediately after the war years, in order to offset shortages of local production of foodstuffs resulting from under-utilization of arable land. The first stages of the program had already been financed by the Export-Import Bank. This exhibit was first published in May 2003
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On May 18, 1971, the World Bank approved its first loan for pollution control. The loan was approved for the Sao Paulo Water Supply and Pollution Control projects to improve the water supply and sewerage services in and around the city of Sao Paulo.
... See More + Pollution control had become a necessity in this large metropolitan area. In this regard the World Bank developed a long term program aimed at abating the severe pollution of the rivers around Sao Paulo. This project was the first comprehensive action taken by the World Bank to restore the ecological balance in rivers. The purpose of the project was to provide two million people with piped water, improve service in the overloaded sections of the pipe networks, and improve sewage collection and disposal. By the end of the project, the existing water services of the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo were improved and the number of people served by sewage disposal systems was increased. This exhibit was originally published in April 2006.
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To mark the month of February and Valentine’s Day, the World Bank Group Archives is featuring a valentine poem about carpooling written by World Bank staff member, Maurice Perkins, which first appeared in the January / February 1959 edition of International Bank Notes, a newsletter for staff.This poem of collegial camaraderie, and other stories of the World Bank Group’s passion for development and poverty alleviation can be found in the Archives.
... See More + This exhibit was originally published in February 2012
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In 1971, a formal memo appeared in the February 1971 edition of International Bank notes. Addressed to a fictitious department head, Paul Szasz, a lawyer in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) Legal Department, pens a satire spoofing the use of Bank-ese and the highly technical language used by staff members.
... See More + The subject refers to the explosive growth in the numbers of Bank staff, a fact born out of the doubling of staff that occurred between the years 1968-1971. Szasz examines the consequences for the world at large if the World Bank grew at such high rates of growth. This exhibit was originally published in March 2003 and highlights time scales; recruitment policies; transmutation of internal services; and external impact. This exhibit was originally published in March 2003.
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Cameroon is a Central African nation on the Gulf of Guinea, bordered by Nigeria, Chad, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon.
... See More + Bantu speakers were among the first groups to settle Cameroon, followed by the Muslim Fulani in the eighteenth and ninteenth centuries. The land escaped colonial rule until 1884, when treaties with tribal chiefs brought the area under German domination. After World War I, the League of Nations gave the French a mandate over 80 percent of the area, and the British 20 percent adjacent to Nigeria. This report analyzed the Bank's experience in implementing its assistance strategy since the previous progress report in 1998 and discussed the Bank's interim program for the following 12-18 months, given that Cameroon's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) and the next full Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) were to be presented to the Board of Executive Directors. The report concluded that if the government failed to address corruption and governance issues, the entire program could be derailed. Risks could be mitigated by undertaking only limited new lending until there had been satisfactory progress in these areas. This exhibit was originally published in January 2003.
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Richard Van Wagenen, Dean of the Graduate School of American University, was invited by the Bank to assist in the creation of the program. He joined the staff of the Bank in November 1962, and immediately started screening applicants, both within the Bank and also externally.
... See More + The application process began with the paper applications. After the first round of elimination, the remaining applicants were narrowed down through a series of interviews with Bank staff members. The Junior Professional Recruitment and Training Program began with an orientation consisting of three weeks of special lectures and a full-time course of two months in applied development economics. During their career at the Bank, many Young Professionals obtained high positions in the organization such as resident representatives, department directors, and Vice Presidents. The program was, and remains, a very important tool for bringing into the Bank young and motivated individuals from all over the world to join the fight against poverty. This exhibit was originally published in February 2006.
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The first loan to Kenya, approved on May 27, 1960 was for the African Agriculture and Roads Project. The first component of the project included completion of land consolidation and registration of land rights.
... See More + The farmers were assisted in modernizing their farms by an enlarged extension service, and the establishment of farm training centers, demonstration farms and a system of farm loans. The project was structured to help farmers to develop cash crops, to establish small herds of milk cattle and improve their beef cattle. Cooperatives for marketing and processing were organized. The second component of this project was the construction of one new road and the improvement of twenty two roads located in twelve districts in four provinces. As of March 2010, the World Bank’s portfolio in Kenya consists of sixteen active operations with total commitments of over 1.4 billion dollars. The largest share of commitments is in infrastructure, including transport, energy, water and sanitation, and agriculture and rural development. Other project sectors include education, health, private sector development, public sector governance, and economic policy. This exhibit was originally published in May 2010.
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In advance of International Women’s Day 2014, the World Bank Group Archives was taking a look at the World Bank Group’s early initiatives relating to women in development, a topic that became increasingly important for the Bank in the mid-1970s.
... See More + Coinciding with the United Nations’ “Decade for Women” (1976-1985), the Bank began to investigate how women in developing countries fared in sectors such as education, water, maternal health, food production, and agriculture. Issues related to women’s legal rights and recognition were also explored. Research was increasingly geared towards the topic, and conferences and workshops were organized and attended. Project evaluations also began to include a focus on the effect individual projects had on women. A key development within the Bank was the creation of the Bank’s Adviser on Women in Development in 1977. The position, first held by Gloria Scott, focused attention on the subject of women in development, and promoted an understanding of the key issues and ways to address them in the Bank’s operational work and in countries which the Bank assists. The subject continued to grow in importance, however, and in the spring of 1987 a Women in Development Division (PHRWD) was created in the Bank’s Population and Human Resources Department. But by 1989, World Bank President Barber Conable was still not satisfied with the Bank’s commitment to women in developing countries. In a letter to then Senior Vice President, Operations, Moeen Qureshi, Conable requested a more systematic and operational approach to the issue. In the letter, he tasks individual Country Departments with the preparation of an assessment of women’s role in development and an action program which should be put in place. Records related to women in development and gender issues can be found in a variety of fonds in the World Bank Group Archives. This exhibit was originally published in March 2014.
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The result of this study was the research paper, Village Water Supply Economics and Policy in the Developing World, written by Robert J. Sounders and Jeremy J.
... See More + Warford of the Bank’s Energy, Water and Telecommunications Department. The purpose of this paper was to describe and raise awareness of the extent and nature of the problem as well as provide some suggestions for dealing with water supply and sanitation. Besides participating in international events on water supply and sanitation, the World Bank addresses the issues through the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector. The World Bank’s lending portfolio in water supply and sanitation is over six million dollars, which makes it the largest external financier in this sector. This exhibit was originally published in February 2006.
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As Edward Mason and Robert Asher describe in “The World Bank Since Bretton Woods” it was achallenge to find a president who would be acceptable to Washington, to Wall Street, and to the rest of the world.
... See More + Several wellknown persons including Lewis Douglas, a director of the General Motors Corporation, declined the presidency of the Bank. The nomination of Eugene Meyer as President of the World Bank by the Executive Directors on June 4, 1946, ended the quest for the first Bank’s president.Three weeks later the institution officially opened for business. Mr. Meyer had the qualities of an ideal candidate. As a successful investment banker in the past, highly respected on Wall Street, he had the capacity to build financial support for the Bank. During his brief tenure as World Bank President Meyer’s major preoccupations were recruiting personnel, and raising money for the Bank. Although these tasks proved to be very challenging Eugene Meyer significantly contributed to the early development of the Bank. He played a key role in the establishment of a sound financial basis for the Bank in an era when investors were wary of any international lending (remembering the defaults in the 1930s). Mr. Meyer persuaded the US financial markets that the newly formed Bank was a good investment and one that would be free of political maneuvering. This exhibit was first published in November 2004.
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In July 1944, representatives from 44 nations met at the Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire for the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference.
... See More + The United States government selected the Mount Washington Hotel as the site of the now famous Bretton Woods Conference for various reasons: its remoteness offered seclusion from outside interference; the White Mountains scenery was spectacular; and war-time security was more easily managed. The Mount Washington Hotel was closed for business in 1930 and completely refurbished before the conference. More than a year later, representatives of 28 nations gathered at the State Department in Washington, D.C. to sign the Bretton Woods Monetary Agreements preliminary agreed upon at the Bretton Woods Conference. This exhibit was first published in July 2008.
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The Boards of Governors of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group meet once a year in the fall to discuss the work of their respective institutions.
... See More + Following the established tradition to meet in a member country every third year, the 2009 Annual Meetings take place in Istanbul, Turkey on September 6-7, 2009. The 7th Annual Meetings were held in Mexico City, Mexico on September 3-12, 1952 under the chairmanship of the Honorable Horacio Lafer, Minister of Finance of Brazil. The Opening Session of the Meetings of the Boards of Governors of the Bank and Fund took place in the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City. The Minister of Finance of Brazil, Horacio Lafer, who presided over the Annual Meetings continued the session with the speech about the world problems challenging Bank and Fund. He talked about the persistent inflation, the rapid growth in world population, and the widespread balance of payments disequilibrium affecting many countries. This exhibit was first published in October 2009.
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Eugene Black speaks with George Woods who succeeded him as fourth President of the World Bank, International Development Association, and Chairman of the International Finance Corporation.
... See More + The two portraits in the background are Eugene Meyer on the left (first President of the World Bank from June 1946 - December 1946), and John McCloy on the right (second World Bank President from March 1947 - July 1949). This exhibit was originally published in December 2012.
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Shirley Boskey, a native of New York City, graduated from Vassar College, then attended Columbia University law school, and received her law degree from George Washington University.
... See More + Before joining the World Bank she served as a lawyer at the U.S. Department of Interior. During her service at the Bank she contributed to the drafting of the charters of the IDA and IFC and was one of the group of Bank staff which first considered the possibilities of multilateral investment insurance. As the Director of the International Relations Department she was responsible for managing the World Bank’s relationship with other intergovernmental organizations such as the United Nations. After her retirement she continued to contribute to the Bank by serving eight years as the President of the 1818 Society, the retirement association for staff of the World Bank Group, and later wrote its history. Shirley was known to her colleagues in the Bank and other international institutions for her professional excellence, institutional knowledge and strong diplomatic skills. Shirley Boskey died on October 13, 1998 but the memories on her many accomplishments live on. This exhibit was originally published in My 2005.
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The World Bank has frequently made an appearance in the world of postage stamps. On December 9, 1960, the United Nations Postal Administration issued a commemorative stamp honoring the Bank.
... See More + This is the first stamp bearing the names of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Finance Corporation and the International Development Association. It also bears the name of the International Monetary Fund.The World Bank made loans to the Tata Iron and Steel Company, Ltd, and the Tata Group of Power Companies. The Tata family gave India many distinguished merchants, industrialists and philanthropists who contributed greatly to India’s development. More recently, to increase awareness of and respect for what they view to be "the world’s most important job," Education International, with support from UNESCO and the World Bank, invited nations of the world to issue postage stamps on the occasion of World Teacher’s Day, celebrated on October 5 every year. The first such stamps were issued in 1999. This exhibit was first published in May 2003
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One of the Bank’s original employees, Edward J. Donovan, passed away on January 14, 2003. He joined the Bank on May 22, 1946, more than a month before it officially opened for business on June 25, 1946.
... See More + In an interview in the June 1976 issue of Bank Notes, Donovan said that he heard about the Bank through the father of a friend. He applied, and was assigned to Office Services, and later he became Chief of the Office Services Division. He was on probation for five weeks, and then stayed until 1978, when he retired. In a special supplement to The Bank’s World celebrating the Bank’s 40th anniversary Donovan remembered that H Street was a noisy place in 1946. Perhaps the most complex and massive job supervised by Donovan during his years as Chief of the Office Services Division was the office moves accompanying the 1972 reorganization of the Bank. The job was completed fourteen hours under the estimated time with no injuries and no arguments. Eddie Donovan was a very popular, well-liked member of the Bank’s staff, and provided a living link to its early days. This exhibit was originally published in February 2003.
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When delegates from Poland signed the Articles of Agreement on June 27th 1986, Poland officially became the 150th member country of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
... See More + A milestone for both the Bank and Poland, this act opened new lines of communication and aid between the two parties. Yet the act had a ring of familiarity to it. Over 50 years before, on January 10th 1946, Poland became the 31st member country of the World Bank. The two loans which Poland applied for were not realized; the Polish government and the Bank were unable to agree upon terms and the negotiations were abandoned in early 1948. On March 14th, 1950 Poland became the first country to withdraw its membership. Thirty-one years later, on November 10th 1981, a Polish delegation met with President Clausen to present a letter of application for entry into the Bank. Poland's final application for membership was submitted in February of 1985. In anticipation of Polish re-entry, the Bank began to analyze the requirements for the revitalization of these sectors. With the application for membership and recovery plans in motion, the rest of the process went smoothly and Poland became a member of the Bank once more. This exhibit was originally published in May 2011.
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