World Bank in Public Policy

Vetterlein, Antje

Abstract

Established in 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference alongside the IMF and GATT, the initial International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) aimed to support post-war European reconstruction and promote development in lower-income countries (LICs). Today, the World Bank Group (WBG) comprises five institutions: the IBRD, which offers development financing and policy loans; the International Development Association (IDA), which provides zero- to low-interest loans and grants; the International Finance Corporation (IFC), focused on private sector investment; the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), offering political risk insurance; and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), which handles investment dispute resolution. Often when we speak about the World Bank, we mainly refer to the first two of these five institutions, the IBRD and the IDA. Both organizations focus on lending and grants to countries at different stages...