Thread: World Bank: No Matter What Governments Do -- Big Climate Change Is Coming

World Bank: No Matter What Governments Do -- Big Climate Change Is Coming

ALISTER DOYLE 15 MINUTES AGO

Smoke rises from chimneys of a steel plant next to a viaduct on a hazy day in Tangshan

OSLO (Reuters) – Some future impacts of climate change, such as more extremes of heat and sea level rise, are unavoidable even if governments act fast to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the World Bank said on Sunday.

Past and predicted emissions from power plants, factories and cars have locked the globe on a path towards an average temperature rise of almost 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times by 2050, it said.

“This means that climate change impacts such as extreme heat events may now be simply unavoidable,” World Bank President Jim Yong Kim told a telephone news conference on the report, titled “Turn down the Heat, Confronting the New Climate Normal.”

“The findings are alarming,” he said.

Sea levels would keep rising for centuries because vast ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica thaw only slowly. If temperatures stayed at current levels, seas would rise 2.3 metres (7 ft 6 in) in the next 2,000 years, the report said.

Average temperatures have already risen by about 0.8 degree(1.4F) since the Industrial Revolution, it said.

“Dramatic climate changes and weather extremes are already affecting millions of people around the world, damaging crops and coastlines and putting water security at risk,” Kim wrote in the report.

As examples of extremes, he pointed to the hottest November day in Australia during a recent Group of 20 summit “or the five to six feet of snow that just fell on Buffalo” in the United States.

Still, the worst impacts of global warming could be avoided by cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the report said.

For example, a rise of 2 degrees (3.6F) in average world temperature over pre-industrial times would mean a reduction in Brazilian crop yields of up to 70 per cent for soybean and up to 50 per cent for wheat in 2050.

Officials from almost 200 nations will meet in Peru from Dec. 1-12 to work on a deal due in Paris in late 2015, to slow climate change. [ID:nL6N0TB496]

Kim defended World Bank policies that permit investments in fossil fuels in developing nations in rare cases, saying it was often for power plants to supply electricity vital to help end poverty.

“Sub-Saharan Africa has a total of about 80 gigawatts of installed (electricity generating) capacity, which is less than Spain,” he said.

(Reporting By Alister Doyle; Editing by Clelia Oziel)



This article originally appeared at Reuters.

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/r-...-bank-2014-11/

The World Bank will make LOTS of money on "Climate Change" and is deeply in bed with the UN.

1. World Bank
2. The World Bank is a United Nations international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programs. The World Bank is a component of the World Bank Group, and a member of the United Nations Development Group. Wikipedia
3. Founded: July 1944, Mount Washington Hotel, Bretton Woods, NH
4. Founders: John Maynard Keynes, Harry Dexter White
5. Recent posts on Google+
   
   World Bank 67,832 followers • Shared publicly
   
   Today is International Day for the Elimination of #Violence against Women. Violence against women and girls is a global epidemic and a leading cause of death ...14 minutes ago
   
6. People also search for
   View 10+ more
   
   International Finance Corporation
   
   Asian Development Bank
   
   African Development Bank
   
   European Bank for Reconstr...

World Bank

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Official logo of World Bank
Motto	Working for a World Free of Poverty
Formation	July 1944; 70 years ago
Type	International Financial Organization
Legal status	Treaty
Purpose	Crediting
Headquarters	Washington D.C., United States
Coordinates	38.53°N 77.02°W Coordinates: 38.53°N 77.02°W
Region	Worldwide
Membership	188 countries (IBRD)[1] 172 countries (IDA)
Official language	Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, Spanish
President	Jim Yong Kim
Main organ	Board of Directors[2]
Parent organization	World Bank Group
Website	www.worldbank.org

The World Bank is a United Nations international financial institution that provides loans^[3] to developing countries for capital programs. The World Bank is a component of the World Bank Group, and a member of the United Nations Development Group.
The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty. According to its Articles of Agreement, all its decisions must be guided by a commitment to the promotion offoreign investment and international trade and to the facilitation of capital investment.^[4][5]

Contents

[hide]

• 1 Composition
  
  • 1.1 World Bank Group
  
  
• 2 History
  
  • 2.1 1944–1968
  • 2.2 1968–1980
  • 2.3 1980–1989
  • 2.4 1989–present
    
    • 2.4.1 Criteria
  
  
• 3 Leadership
  
  • 3.1 List of Presidents
  
  
• 4 List of chief economists
• 5 Members
  
  • 5.1 Voting power
  
  
• 6 List of 20 largest countries by voting power in each World Bank institution
• 7 Poverty reduction strategies
• 8 Global Partnerships and Initiatives
  
  • 8.1 Climate Change
  • 8.2 Food Security
  
  
• 9 Training wings
  
  • 9.1 World Bank Institute
  • 9.2 Global Development Learning Network
    
    • 9.2.1 GDLN Asia Pacific
    
    
  • 9.3 The JUSTPAL Network
  
  
• 10 Country assistance strategies
• 11 Clean Air Initiative
• 12 United Nations Development Business
• 13 Open Data initiative
• 14 Criticisms
  
  • 14.1 Structural adjustment
  • 14.2 Fairness of assistance conditions
  • 14.3 Sovereign immunity
  
  
• 15 See also
• 16 References
• 17 External links

Composition[edit]

World Bank Group[edit]

The World Bank should not be confused with the United Nations World Bank Group, a member of theUnited Nations Economic and Social Council, and a family of five international organizations that make leveraged loans to poor countries:^[6]

• International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD)
• International Development Association (IDA)
• International Finance Corporation (IFC)
• Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)
• International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)

History[edit]

Lord Keynes (right) and Harry Dexter White, the "founding fathers" of both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund(IMF).^[7]

The World Bank was created at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference, along with three other institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The World Bank and the IMF are both based in Washington, D.C., and work closely with each other.

The Gold Room at the Mount Washington Hotel where the IMF and World Bank were established

Although many countries were represented at the Bretton Woods Conference, the United States and United Kingdom were the most powerful in attendance and dominated the negotiations.^[8]:52–54
1944–1968[edit]

Before 1968, the reconstruction and development loans provided by the World Bank were relatively small. The Bank's staff was aware of the need to instill confidence in the bank. Fiscal conservatism ruled, and loan applications had to meet strict criteria.^[8]:56–60

The first country to receive a World Bank loan was France. The Bank's president at the time, John McCloy, chose France over two other applicants, Poland and Chile. The loan was for US$250 million, half the amount requested, and it came with strict conditions. France had to agree to produce a balanced budget and give priority of debt repayment to the World Bank over other governments. World Bank staff closely monitored the use of the funds to ensure that the French government met the conditions. In addition, before the loan was approved, the United States State Department told the French government that its members associated with the Communist Party would first have to be removed. The French government complied with this diktat and removed the Communist coalition government. Within hours, the loan to France was approved.^{[9]:288, 290–291}
When the Marshall Plan went into effect in 1947, many European countries began receiving aid from other sources. Faced with this competition, the World Bank shifted its focus to non-European countries. Until 1968, its loans were earmarked for the construction of income-producing infrastructure, such as seaports, highway systems, and power plants, that would generate enough income to enable a borrower country to repay the loan.
1968–1980[edit]

From 1968 to 1980, the bank concentrated on meeting the basic needs of people in the developing world. The size and number of loans to borrowers was greatly increased as loan targets expanded from infrastructure into social services and other sectors.^[10]
These changes can be attributed to Robert McNamara who was appointed to the presidency in 1968 by Lyndon B. Johnson.^[8]:60–63 McNamara imported a technocratic managerial style to the Bank that he had used as United States Secretary of Defense and President of the Ford Motor Company.^[8]:62McNamara shifted bank policy toward measures such as building schools and hospitals, improvingliteracy and agricultural reform. McNamara created a new system of gathering information from potential borrower nations that enabled the bank to process loan applications much faster. To finance more loans, McNamara told bank treasurer Eugene Rotberg to seek out new sources of capital outside of the northern banks that had been the primary sources of bank funding. Rotberg used the global bond market to increase the capital available to the bank.^[11] One consequence of the period of poverty alleviation lending was the rapid rise of third world debt. From 1976 to 1980 developing world debt rose at an average annual rate of 20%.^[12][13]
In 1980, the World Bank Administrative Tribunal was established to decide on disputes between the World Bank Group and its staff where allegation of non-observance of contracts of employment or terms of appointment had not been honored.^[14]
1980–1989[edit]

In 1980, McNamara was succeeded by US President Jimmy Carter's nominee, A.W. Clausen. Clausen replaced many members of McNamara's staff and instituted a new ideological focus. His 1982 decision to replace the bank's Chief Economist, Hollis B. Chenery, with Anne Krueger was an indication of this new focus. Krueger was known for her criticism of development funding and for describing Third Worldgovernments as "rent-seeking states."
During the 1980s, the bank emphasized lending to service Third-World debt, and structural adjustmentpolicies designed to streamline the economies of developing nations. UNICEF reported in the late 1980s that the structural adjustment programs of the World Bank had been responsible for "reduced health, nutritional and educational levels for tens of millions of children in Asia, Latin America, and Africa".^[15]
1989–present[edit]

Beginning in 1989, in response to harsh criticism from many groups, the bank began including environmental groups and NGOs in its loans to mitigate the past effects of its development policies that had prompted the criticism.^[8]:93–97 It also formed an implementing agency, in accordance with the Montreal Protocols, to stop ozone-depletion damage to the Earth's atmosphere by phasing out the use of 95% of ozone-depleting chemicals, with a target date of 2015. Since then, in accordance with its so-called "Six Strategic Themes," the bank has put various additional policies into effect to preserve the environment while promoting development. For example, in 1991, the bank announced that to protect against deforestation, especially in the Amazon, it would not finance any commercial logging or infrastructure projects that harm the environment.
In order to promote global public goods, the World Bank tries to control communicable disease such as malaria, delivering vaccines to several parts of the world and joining combat forces. In 2000, the bank announced a "war on AIDS", and in 2011, the Bank joined the Stop Tuberculosis Partnership.^[16]
Less recently, a project in Seychelles to promote local tourism by the name of project MAGIC was launched in 2010. Its successor project TIME was scheduled to be launched in 2012.
Traditionally, based on a tacit understanding between the United States and Europe, the president of the World Bank has always been selected from candidates nominated by the United States. In 2012, for the first time, two non-US citizens were nominated.
On 23 March 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama announced that the United States would nominateJim Yong Kim as the next president of the Bank.^[17] Jim Yong Kim was elected on 27 April 2012.

The World Bank Group headquarters bldg. in Washington, D.C.

Criteria[edit]

Many achievements have brought the Millennium Development Goals targets for 2015 within reach in some cases. For the goals to be realized, six criteria must be met: stronger and more inclusive growth in Africa and fragile states, more effort in health and education, integration of the development and environment agendas, more and better aid, movement on trade negotiations, and stronger and more focused support from multilateral institutions like the World Bank.^[18]

1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger: From 1990 through 2004, the proportion of people living in extreme poverty fell from almost a third to less than a fifth. Although results vary widely within regions and countries, the trend indicates that the world as a whole can meet the goal of halving the percentage of people living in poverty. Africa's poverty, however, is expected to rise, and most of the 36 countries where 90% of the world's undernourished children live are in Africa. Less than a quarter of countries are on track for achieving the goal of halving under-nutrition.
2. Achieve Universal Primary Education: The percentage of children in school in developing countries increased from 80% in 1991 to 88% in 2005. Still, about 72 million children of primary school age, 57% of them girls, were not being educated as of 2005.
3. Promote Gender Equality: The tide is turning slowly for women in the labor market, yet far more women than men- worldwide more than 60% – are contributing but unpaid family workers. The World Bank Group Gender Action Plan was created to advance women's economic empowerment and promote shared growth.
4. Reduce Child Mortality: There is some what improvement in survival rates globally; accelerated improvements are needed most urgently in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 10 million-plus children under five died in 2005; most of their deaths were from preventable causes.
5. Improve Maternal Health: Almost all of the half million women who die during pregnancy or childbirth every year live in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. There are numerous causes of maternal death that require a variety of health care interventions to be made widely accessible.
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Other Diseases: Annual numbers of new HIV infections and AIDS deaths have fallen, but the number of people living with HIV continues to grow. In the eight worst-hit southern African countries, prevalence is above 15 percent. Treatment has increased globally, but still meets only 30 percent of needs (with wide variations across countries). AIDS remains the leading cause of death in Sub-Saharan Africa (1.6 million deaths in 2007). There are 300 to 500 million cases of malaria each year, leading to more than 1 million deaths. Nearly all the cases and more than 95 percent of the deaths occur in Sub-Saharan Africa.
7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability: Deforestation remains a critical problem, particularly in regions of biological diversity, which continues to decline. Greenhouse gas emissions are increasing faster than energy technology advancement.
8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development: Donor countries have renewed their commitment. Donors have to fulfill their pledges to match the current rate of core program development. Emphasis is being placed on the Bank Group's collaboration with multilateral and local partners to quicken progress toward the MDGs' realization.

To make sure that World Bank-financed operations do not compromise these goals but instead add to their realisation, environmental, social and legal Safeguards were defined. However, these Safeguards have not been implemented entirely yet. At the World Bank's annual meeting in Tokyo 2012 a review of these Safeguards has been initiated which was welcomed by several civil society organisations.^[19]
Leadership[edit]

Jim Yong Kim, the current President of the World Bank Group

The President of the Bank is the president of the entire World Bank Group. The president, currently Jim Yong Kim, is responsible for chairing the meetings of the Boards of Directors and for overall management of the Bank. Traditionally, the Bank President has always been a US citizen nominated by the United States, the largest shareholder in the bank (the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund having always been a European). The nominee is subject to confirmation by the Board of Executive Directors, to serve for a five-year, renewable term. While most World Bank presidents have had banking experience, some have not.^[20][21]
The vice presidents of the Bank are its principal managers, in charge of regions, sectors, networks and functions. There are two Executive Vice Presidents, three Senior Vice Presidents, and 24 Vice Presidents.^[22]
The Boards of Directors consist of the World Bank Group President and 25 Executive Directors. The President is the presiding officer, and ordinarily has no vote except a deciding vote in case of an equal division. The Executive Directors as individuals cannot exercise any power nor commit or represent the Bank unless specifically authorized by the Boards to do so. With the term beginning 1 November 2010, the number of Executive Directors increased by one, to 25.^[23]
List of Presidents[edit]

Name	Dates	Nationality	Background
Eugene Meyer	1946–1946	United States	Newspaper publisher and Chairman of the Federal Reserve
John J. McCloy	1947–1949	United States	Lawyer and US Assistant Secretary of War
Eugene R. Black, Sr.	1949–1963	United States	Bank executive with Chase and executive director with the World Bank
George Woods	1963–1968	United States	Bank executive with First Boston Corporation
Robert McNamara	1968–1981	United States	US Defense Secretary, business executive with Ford Motor Company
Alden W. Clausen	1981–1986	United States	Lawyer, bank executive with Bank of America
Barber Conable	1986–1991	United States	New York State Senator and US Congressman
Lewis T. Preston	1991–1995	United States	Bank executive with J.P. Morgan
Sir James Wolfensohn	1995–2005	United States	Wolfensohn was a naturalised American citizen before taking office. Corporate lawyer and banker
Paul Wolfowitz	2005–2007	United States	Various cabinet and government positions; US Ambassador to Indonesia, US Deputy Secretary of Defense
Robert Zoellick	2007–2012	United States	Deputy Secretary of State and US Trade Representative
Jim Yong Kim	2012–present	United States	Former Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard, president of Dartmouth College

List of chief economists[edit]

Main article: World Bank Chief Economist

• Hollis B. Chenery (1972–1982)
• Anne Osborn Krueger (1982–1986)
• Stanley Fischer (1988–1990)
• Lawrence Summers (1991–1993)
• Michael Bruno (1993–1996)
• Joseph E. Stiglitz (1997–2000)
• Nicholas Stern (2000–2003)
• François Bourguignon (2003–2007)
• Justin Yifu Lin (June 2008 – 2012 )
• Kaushik Basu (September 2012-)

Members[edit]

Main article: List of World Bank members
The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) has 188 member countries, while the International Development Association (IDA) has 172 members. Each member state of IBRD should be also a member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and only members of IBRD are allowed to join other institutions within the Bank (such as IDA).^[24]
Voting power[edit]

In 2010, voting powers at the World Bank were revised to increase the voice of developing countries, notably China. The countries with most voting power are now the United States (15.85%), Japan (6.84%), China (4.42%), Germany (4.00%), the United Kingdom (3.75%), France (3.75%), India(2.91%),^[25] Russia (2.77%), Saudi Arabia (2.77%) and Italy (2.64%). Under the changes, known as 'Voice Reform – Phase 2', countries other than China that saw significant gains included South Korea, Turkey, Mexico, Singapore, Greece, Brazil, India, and Spain. Most developed countries' voting power was reduced, along with a few poor countries such as Nigeria. The voting powers of the United States, Russia and Saudi Arabia were unchanged.^[26][27]
The changes were brought about with the goal of making voting more universal in regards to standards, rule-based with objective indicators, and transparent among other things. Now, developing countries have an increased voice in the "Pool Model," backed especially by Europe. Additionally, voting power is based on economic size in addition to International Development Association contributions.^[28]
List of 20 largest countries by voting power in each World Bank institution[edit]

The following table are amounts for 20 largest countries by voting power in the following World Bank institutions as of October 2014: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), theInternational Finance Corporation (IFC), the International Development Association (IDA), and theMultilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA).^[29][30]

Rank	Country	IBRD	Country	IFC	Country	IDA	Country	MIGA
	World	2,074,285	World	2,649,955	World	23,804,709	World	218,321
1	United States	332,630	United States	570,178	United States	2,546,503	United States	32,792
2	Japan	166,056	Japan	163,333	Japan	2,044,447	Japan	9,207
3	China	107,206	Germany	129,707	United Kingdom	1,409,037	Germany	9,164
4	Germany	93,113	France	121,814	Germany	1,319,536	France	8,793
5	France	82,904	United Kingdom	121,814	France	908,581	United Kingdom	8,793
6	United Kingdom	82,904	India	103,652	Saudi Arabia	772,020	China	5,758
7	India	62,502	Russia	103,652	India	661,909	Russia	5,756
8	Canada	58,966	Canada	82,141	Canada	623,798	Saudi Arabia	5,756
9	Italy	51,564	Italy	82,141	Italy	573,632	India	5,599
10	Russia	46,443	China	62,392	China	495,213	Canada	5,453
11	Saudi Arabia	46,443	Netherlands	56,930	Poland	474,294	Italy	5,198
12	Spain	42,910	Belgium	51,409	Netherlands	464,187	Netherlands	4,050
13	Netherlands	42,310	Australia	48,128	Sweden	463,538	Belgium	3,805
14	Brazil	34,634	Switzerland	44,862	Brazil	389,780	Australia	3,247
15	Switzerland	33,258	Brazil	40,278	Australia	293,625	Switzerland	2,871
16	Belgium	33,026	Argentina	38,928	Belgium	258,893	Brazil	2,834
17	Iran	32,105	Spain	37,825	Switzerland	253,747	Spain	2,493
18	South Korea	31,574	Indonesia	30,892	Norway	242,552	Argentina	2,438
19	Australia	30,872	Saudi Arabia	30,861	Denmark	218,104	Indonesia	2,077
20	Turkey	26,255	South Korea	28,894	Spain	206,661	Sweden	2,077

Poverty reduction strategies[edit]

For the poorest developing countries in the world, the bank's assistance plans are based on poverty reduction strategies; by combining a cross-section of local groups with an extensive analysis of the country's financial and economic situation the World Bank develops a strategy pertaining uniquely to the country in question. The government then identifies the country's priorities and targets for the reduction of poverty, and the World Bank aligns its aid efforts correspondingly.
Forty-five countries pledged US$25.1 billion in "aid for the world's poorest countries", aid that goes to the World Bank International Development Association (IDA) which distributes the loans to eighty poorer countries. While wealthier nations sometimes fund their own aid projects, including those for diseases, and although IDA is the recipient of criticism, Robert B. Zoellick, the former president of the World Bank, said when the loans were announced on 15 December 2007, that IDA money "is the core funding that the poorest developing countries rely on".^[31]
World Bank organizes Development Marketplace Awards which is a competitive grant program that surfaces and funds innovative, development projects with high potential for development impact that are scalable and/or replicable. The grant beneficiaries are social enterprises with projects that aim to deliver a range of social and public services to the most underserved low-income groups.
Global Partnerships and Initiatives[edit]

The World Bank has been assigned temporary management responsibility of the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), focused on making renewable energy cost-competitive with coal-fired power as quickly as possible, but this may not continue after UN's Copenhagen climate change conference in December 2009, because of the Bank's continued investment in coal-fired power plants.^[32]
Together with the WHO, the World Bank administers the International Health Partnership (IHP+).IHP+ is a group of partners committed to improving the health of citizens in developing countries. Partners work together to put international principles for aid effectiveness and development cooperation into practice in the health sector. IHP+ mobilizes national governments, development agencies, civil society and others to support a single, country-led national health strategy in a well-coordinated way.
Climate Change[edit]

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said in 2012 that:
“A 4 degree warmer world can, and must be, avoided – we need to hold warming below 2 degrees .... Lack of action on climate change threatens to make the world our children inherit a completely different world than we are living in today. Climate change is one of the single biggest challenges facing development, and we need to assume the moral responsibility to take action on behalf of future generations, especially the poorest.”^[33]A World Bank report into Climate change in 2012 noted that (p. xiii): "Even with the current mitigation commitments and pledges fully implemented, there is roughly a 20 percent likelihood of exceeding 4°C by 2100." This is despite the fact that the "global community has committed itself to holding warming below 2°C to prevent 'dangerous' climate change"". Furthermore: "A series of recent extreme events worldwide highlight the vulnerability of all countries. ... No nation will be immune to the impacts of climate change." ^[34]
The World Bank doubled its aid for climate change adaptation from $2.3bn (£1.47bn) in 2011 to $4.6bn in 2012. The planet is now 0.8°C warmer than in pre-industrial times. It says that 2°C warming will be reached in 20 to 30 years.^[35][36]
Food Security[edit]

Main article: Food security

1. Global Food Security Program: Launched in April 2010, six countries alongside the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have pledged $925 mn for food security. Till date the program has helped 8 countries, promoting agriculture, research, trade in agriculture, etc.
2. Launched Global Food Crisis Response Program: Given grants to approximately 40 nations for seeds, etc. for improving productivity.
3. In process of increasing its yearly spending for agriculture to $6 billion–$8 billion from earlier $4 billion.
4. Runs several nutrition program across the world, e.g., vitamin A doses for children, school meals, etc.^{[citation needed]}

Training wings[edit]

World Bank Institute[edit]

The World Bank Institute (WBI) creates learning opportunities for countries, World Bank staff and clients, and people committed to poverty reduction and sustainable development. WBI's work program includes training, policy consultations, and the creation and support of knowledge networks related to international economic and social development.
The World Bank Institute (WBI) can be defined as a "global connector of knowledge, learning and innovation for poverty reduction". It aims to inspire change agents and prepare them with essential tools that can help achieve development results. WBI has four major strategies to approach development problems: innovation for development, knowledge exchange, leadership and coalition building, and structured learning. World Bank Institute(WBI) was formerly known as Economic Development Institute (EDI), established on 11 March 1955 with the support of the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations. The purpose of the institute was to serve as provide an open place where senior officials from developing countries could discuss development policies and programs. Over the years, EDI grew significantly and in 2000, the Institute was renamed as the World Bank Institute. Currently Sanjay Pradhan is the Vice President of the World Bank Institute.^[37]
Global Development Learning Network[edit]

The Global Development Learning Network (GDLN) is a partnership of over 120 learning centers (GDLN Affiliates) in nearly 80 countries around the world. GDLN Affiliates collaborate in holding events that connect people across countries and regions for learning and dialogue on development issues.
GDLN clients are typically NGOs, government, private sector and development agencies who find that they work better together on subregional, regional or global development issues using the facilities and tools offered by GDLN Affiliates. Clients also benefit from the ability of Affiliates to help them choose and apply these tools effectively, and to tap development practitioners and experts worldwide. GDLN Affiliates facilitate around 1000 videoconference-based activities a year on behalf of their clients, reaching some 90,000 people worldwide. Most of these activities bring together participants in two or more countries over a series of sessions. A majority of GDLN activities are organized by small government agencies and NGOs.
GDLN Asia Pacific[edit]

The GDLN in the East Asia and Pacific region has experienced rapid growth and Distance Learning Centers now operate, or are planned in 20 countries: Australia, Mongolia, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Japan, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Thailand, Laos, Timor Leste, Fiji, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and New Zealand. With over 180 Distance Learning Centers, it is the largest development learning network in the Asia and Pacific region. The Secretariat Office of GDLN Asia Pacific is located in the Center of Academic Resources of Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.
GDLN Asia Pacific was launched at the GDLN's East Asia and Pacific regional meeting held in Bangkok from 22 to 24 May 2006. Its vision is to become "the premier network exchanging ideas, experience and know-how across the Asia Pacific Region". GDLN Asia Pacific is a separate entity to The World Bank. It has endorsed its own Charter and Business Plan and, in accordance with the Charter, a GDLN Asia Pacific Governing Committee has been appointed.
The committee comprises China (2), Australia (1), Thailand (1), The World Bank (1) and finally, a nominee of the Government of Japan (1). The organization is currently hosted by Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, founding member of the GDLN Asia Pacific.
The Governing Committee has determined that the most appropriate legal status for the GDLN AP in Thailand is a "Foundation". The World Bank is currently engaging a solicitor in Thailand to process all documentation in order to obtain this legal status.
GDLN Asia Pacific is built on the principle of shared resources among partners engaged in a common task, and this is visible in the organizational structures that exist, as the network evolves. Physical space for its headquarters is provided by the host of the GDLN Centre in Thailand – Chulalongkorn University; Technical expertise and some infrastructure is provided by the Tokyo Development Learning Centre (TDLC); Fiduciary services are provided by Australian National University (ANU) Until the GDLN Asia Pacific is established as a legal entity tin Thailand, ANU, has offered to assist the governing committee, by providing a means of managing the inflow and outflow of funds and of reporting on them. This admittedly results in some complexity in contracting arrangements, which need to be worked out on a case by case basis and depends to some extent on the legal requirements of the countries involved.
The JUSTPAL Network[edit]

A Justice Sector Peer-Assisted Learning (JUSTPAL) Network was launched in April 2011 by the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management (PREM) Department of the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia (ECA) Region. The JUSTPAL objective is to provide an online and offline platform for justice professionals to exchange knowledge, good practices and peer-driven improvements to justice systems and thereby support countries to improve their justice sector performance, quality of justice and service delivery to citizens and businesses.
The JUSTPAL Network includes representatives of judiciaries, ministries of justice, prosecutors, anti-corruption agencies and other justice-related entities from across the globe. The Network currently has active members from more than 50 countries.
To facilitate fruitful exchange of reform experiences and sharing of applicable good practices, the JUSTPAL Network has organized its activities under (currently) five Communities of Practice (COPs): (i) Budgeting for the Justice Sector; (ii) Information Systems for Justice Services; (iii) Justice Sector Physical Infrastructure; (iv) Court Management and Administration; and (v) Prosecution and Anti-Corruption Agencies.
Country assistance strategies[edit]

As a guideline to the World Bank's operations in any particular country, a Country Assistance Strategy is produced, in cooperation with the local government and any interested stakeholders and may rely on analytical work performed by the Bank or other parties.
Clean Air Initiative[edit]

Clean Air Initiative (CAI) is a World Bank initiative to advance innovative ways to improve air quality in cities through partnerships in selected regions of the world by sharing knowledge and experiences. It includes electric vehicles.^[38]
United Nations Development Business[edit]

Based on an agreement between the United Nations and the World Bank in 1981, Development Business became the official source for World Bank Procurement Notices, Contract Awards, and Project Approvals.^[39]
In 1998, the agreement was re-negotiated, and included in this agreement was a joint venture to create an electronic version of the publication via the World Wide Web. Today, Development Business is the primary publication for all major multilateral development banks, United Nations agencies, and several national governments, many of whom have made the publication of their tenders and contracts inDevelopment Business a mandatory requirement.^[39]
The World Bank or the World Bank Group is also a sitting observer in the United Nations Development Group.^[40]
Open Data initiative[edit]

The World Bank collects and processes large amounts of data and generates them on the basis of economic models. These data and models have gradually been made available to the public in a way that encourages reuse,^[41] whereas the recent publications describing them are available as open access under a Creative Commons Attribution License, for which the bank received the SPARC Innovator 2012 award.^[42] The World Bank hosts the Open Knowledge Repository (OKR) ^[43] as an official open access repository for its research outputs and knowledge products.
The World Bank's repository is listed in the Registry of Research Data Repositories re3data.org.^[44]
Criticisms[edit]

The World Bank has long been criticized by non-governmental organizations, such as the indigenous rights group Survival International, and academics, including its former Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz, Henry Hazlitt and Ludwig Von Mises.^[45][46][47] Henry Hazlitt argued that the World Bank along with the monetary system it was designed within would promote world inflation and "a world in which international trade is State-dominated" when they were being advocated.^[48] Stiglitz argued that the so-called free market reform policies which the Bank advocates are often harmful to economic development if implemented badly, too quickly ("shock therapy"), in the wrong sequence or in weak, uncompetitive economies.^[46][49]
One of the strongest criticisms of the World Bank has been the way in which it is governed. While the World Bank represents 188 countries, it is run by a small number of economically powerful countries. These countries (which also provide most of the institution's funding) choose the leadership and senior management of the World Bank, and so their interests dominate the bank.^[50]:190 Titus Alexander argues that the unequal voting power of western countries and the World Bank's role in developing countries makes it similar to the South African Development Bank under apartheid, and therefore a pillar of global apartheid.^{[51]:133–141}
In the 1990s, the World Bank and the IMF forged the Washington Consensus, policies which includedderegulation and liberalization of markets, privatization and the downscaling of government. Though the Washington Consensus was conceived as a policy that would best promote development, it was criticized for ignoring equity, employment and how reforms like privatization were carried out. Joseph Stiglitz argued that the Washington Consensus placed too much emphasis on the growth of GDP, and not enough on the permanence of growth or on whether growth contributed to better living standards.^[47]:17
The United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations report criticized the World Bank and other international financial institutions for focusing too much "on issuing loans rather than on achieving concrete development results within a finite period of time" and called on the institution to "strengthen anti-corruption efforts".^[52]
Criticism of the World Bank often takes the form of protesting as seen in recent events such as theWorld Bank Oslo 2002 Protests,^[53] the October Rebellion,^[54] and the Battle of Seattle.^[55] Such demonstrations have occurred all over the world, even amongst the Brazilian Kayapo people.^[56]
Another source of criticism has been the tradition of having an American head the bank, implemented because the United States provides the majority of World Bank funding. "When economists from the World Bank visit poor countries to dispense cash and advice," observed The Economist in 2012, "they routinely tell governments to reject cronyism and fill each important job with the best candidate available. It is good advice. The World Bank should take it."^[57] Jim Yong Kim is the most recently appointed president of the World Bank.^[58]
Structural adjustment[edit]

The effect of structural adjustment policies on poor countries has been one of the most significant criticisms of the World Bank.^[59] The 1979 energy crisis plunged many countries into economic crisis.^[60]:68 The World Bank responded with structural adjustment loans which distributed aid to struggling countries while enforcing policy changes in order to reduce inflation and fiscal imbalance. Some of these policies included encouraging production, investment and labour-intensive manufacturing, changing real exchange rates and altering the distribution of government resources. Structural adjustment policies were most effective in countries with an institutional framework that allowed these policies to be implemented easily. For some countries, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, economic growth regressed and inflation worsened. The alleviation of poverty was not a goal of structural adjustment loans, and the circumstances of the poor often worsened, due to a reduction in social spending and an increase in the price of food, as subsidies were lifted.^[60]:69
By the late 1980s, international organizations began to admit that structural adjustment policies were worsening life for the world's poor. The World Bank changed structural adjustment loans, allowing for social spending to be maintained, and encouraging a slower change to policies such as transfer of subsidies and price rises.^[60]:70 In 1999, the World Bank and the IMF introduced the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper approach to replace structural adjustment loans.^[61]:147 The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper approach has been interpreted as an extension of structural adjustment policies as it continues to reinforce and legitimize global inequities. Neither approach has addressed the inherent flaws within the global economy that contribute to economic and social inequities within developing countries.^[61]:152 By reinforcing the relationship between lending and client states, many believe that the World Bank has usurped indebted countries' power to determine their own economic policy.^[62]
Fairness of assistance conditions[edit]

Some critics,^[63] most prominently the author Naomi Klein, are of the opinion that the World Bank Group's loans and aid have unfair conditions attached to them that reflect the interests, financial power and political doctrines (notably the Washington Consensus) of the Bank and, by extension, the countries that are most influential within it. Amongst other allegations, Klein says the Group's credibility was damaged "when it forced school fees on students in Ghana in exchange for a loan; when it demanded that Tanzania privatise its water system; when it made telecom privatisation a condition of aid for Hurricane Mitch; when it demanded labour "flexibility" in Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami; when it pushed for eliminating food subsidies in post-invasion Iraq."^[64]
Sovereign immunity[edit]

The World Bank requires sovereign immunity from countries it deals with.^[65][66][67] Sovereign immunity waives a holder from all legal liability for their actions. It is proposed that this immunity from responsibility is a "shield which [The World Bank] wants to resort to, for escaping accountability and security by the people."^[65] As the United States has veto power, it can prevent the World Bank from taking action against its interests.<sup>[65]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Bank</sup>