Lending

 IBRD | MAP |The mission of the World Bank is to reduce poverty. This is an important commitment to the observance of which must be required by the Bank and its activities should be assessed against the background of this commitment. In its first year (1946), the Bank has granted loans amounting to 500 million U.S. dollars. Today the World Bank annually provides 20 to 30 billion dollars, which are sent to different targets, among which include agriculture, trade policy, health care, education, energy, and mining.World Bank - one of the largest sources of public funding in the world. However, they performed a variety of roles, including a credit institution, an intermediary in the transfer of knowledge as well as the controller access to finance for development, together serve a different purpose, namely the direction of the flow of investor dollars and aid to certain countries and sectors. The focus of these investments on poverty reduction can often be questioned.World Bank as a lending institution: World Bank lends money to governments in low-and middle-income countries on the following general objectives: investment projects and policy reforms. When lending to investment projects typically support is public facilities, such as water, roads and schools. The World Bank also funded for the reform of the economic, institutional and other policies, and this type of lending is often called credit for "structural reforms" or "development policy". These reforms may have some impact on the number and composition of public spending in your country, and to create the economic and social policies implemented by your State and affecting the cost of electricity and water, labor laws and regulations governing foreign investment.The World Bank provides funds in the form of loans and grants, and the poorest countries often receive both types of funds. In recent years, the Bank has increased its share of funding provided through grants.As a rule, the Bank requires that borrowing countries to take action or prior to the approval of the related loan or grant, or in the course of the project. These requirements are denoted by the term "conditions" or "conditionality". Conditions can be very different - from the requirements of the privatization of companies in the public domain, or to establish a lower trade tariffs to mandatory approval of the new budget and the introduction of new procurement procedures. The fact that borrowing governments Bank imposed conditions producing a mixed assessment, has long been a target of criticism because it can be considered as a violation of the sovereignty of states and the method of non-democratic reforms plantations, which can cause severe consequences for people and the planet.The World Bank as an intermediary in the transfer of knowledge: the Bank has taken a leading position in the market research in the field of development, regularly publishing numerous books and reports, which form the public debate about development. In the absence of alternative sources of information, many countries are informed about economic policies and development models through the World Bank. In 2000, the World Bank has set up its own research and educational institution, the World Bank Institute (WBI) in order to have a direct impact on the discourse of development. WBI has conducted training for public officials, including parliamentarians and civil society representatives on the various aspects of policy and planning for development.The World Bank as the controller access to finance development: Finally, the World Bank has an impact on the total amount and the content of the financing available to countries in development. Lending by the World Bank and other donors decisions by the results of research and analysis undertaken by the Bank, in particular, such as the assessment of the Bank's research institutions and policies of the country (CPIA) and the Investment Climate Assessment (ICA), which ranks countries based on their economic policies and openness to foreign investment. Since many donors follow the example of the Bank, taken by the agency funding decisions, as well as its assessment of country development strategies largely determine the extent of access to the borrowing capital from a variety of resources. The role of the bank as a supervisor is particularly strong in the case of countries that are dependent on external aid and do not have the credit rating than countries with access to international capital markets.