World Bank

WORLD BANK History The World Bank was created during World War II at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. After the war, World Bank's goal was to help European countries with post-war reconstruction. Its first loan of $250 million was given to France in 1947. During the 1980s, the World Bank followed many directions leading from macroeconomic and debt rescheduling issues to social and environmental issues. The Bank started to be criticized because they didn't observe their own policies. …

…The bank also provides all varied kinds of financing to reduce poverty and reach its Millennium Development Goals. The bank lends each year about 15-20 million US dollars to developing countries. This sums up to numerous contracts ranging in size form a few thousand dollars to multi-million dollar expenditures. For example, "In 2004, IBRD and IDEA lending commitments increased to $20 billion, reflecting highest-ever lending levels by IDA, which reached 9 billion for 158 new operations" (www.worlbank.com).