FACULTY: ART
AND HUMANITY
DEPARTMENT: HISTORY
AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
COURSE CODE: HIR
305
COURSE TITLE: INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC RELATIONS
The advent of World Bank was occasioned
by the propensity to restore global peace following the collapse of the Second
World War in 1944.
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. The
World Bank was created at the 1944 Bretton wood 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 world hope was dashed when the
expected peace became a mirage and as the international community were still
nursing the pains and injuries inflicted on her by the first world war of 1918.
In a bide or an attempt to recover
the vandalized destinies and the world ravaged economics, an attempt was
therefore made to reposition the countries whose economics were badly battered.
Consequently, the outcome of the
post war international monetary conference held in Bretton Woods, New
Hampshire, in USA in July 1944 conceived the idea for IMF formation.
Finally, the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) which metamorphosed into International Bank for Reconstruction and
Development – World Bank was birthed in 1945. it subsequently commenced
operation in 1947 with head quarters in Washington D.C., USA.
The roles of the World Bank
inter-alia include the following:
1. The advancement of prospects for world
peace.
2. As a United Nations International
financial institution, it provides loans to
developing countries for capital programs such as railroads, highways, bridges, ports and recreational outfits
etc
3. As a component of World Bank that
doubles as a member of United Nations
Group, there is the expansion of international franchising for global business growth.
4. With the established of the
Administrative tribunal in 1980, the World Bank
became well positioned to adjudicate for world total peace.
5. There
was also the emphasis of the bank lending policies to service the third world
debts and structural adjustment programmes designed to streamline the economics
of the developing nations.
6. The
birth of the World Bank became an antidote in curbing the power – drunk of the
leftists in Western Europe.
7. It
also to a very large extent promoted capitalist policies and strengthened the
power of the corporate sectors.
8. Another
fundamental role of the World Bank is to smooth world commerce by reducing
foreign exchange restrictions – tariffs, import duties and using its reserve of
funds to lend to countries experiencing temporary balance of payments
challenges to that international marketing can continue without interruption.
Many European countries began
receiving aid from other sources faced with this completion; the World Bank
shifted its focus to non-European Countries. Until 1968, its loans were
earmarked for the contracture, such as seaports, highway system, and power plants
that world generate enough income to enable a borrowed country to repay the
loan.
World Bank Organizes Developments
Market Place Awards which is a competitive grant program that surfaces and
funds innovation, development projects with high potential for development
impact that are scalable and / aor replicable
The World Bank has been assigned
temporary management responsibility of the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) focused
on marking renewable energy cost – competitive with coal – fired power is
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 plant.
The World Bank collects and
processes large amounts of data and generates them on the basis of economic
models.