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World Bank Group, The


Self Description

January 2002: "The World Bank Group is one of the world's largest sources of development assistance. In Fiscal Year 2001, the institution provided more than US$17 billion in loans to its client countries. It works in more than 100 developing economies with the primary focus of helping the poorest people and the poorest countries." http://www.worldbank.org/about/

Third-Party Descriptions

December 2010: "Organizations like the United Nations and the World Bank say the practice, if done equitably, could help feed the growing global population by introducing large-scale commercial farming to places without it."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/world/africa/22mali.html

October 2008: "The World Bank Group's computer network — one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation — has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year, FOX News has learned."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,435681,00.html

May 2008: "Wade's broadside is part of a backlash against multilateral organizations that were created after World War II -- including the FAO, the World Bank and the World Food Program -- tasked with weaving together a safety net for the world's poorest. The recent spike in food prices has ripped a massive tear in that net, triggering riots around the world and threatening to plunge more than 100 million people into extreme poverty."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/18/AR2008051802233.html

May 2008: "The biggest cutbacks have come in donations to agriculture in poor countries from the governments of wealthy countries and in loans from development institutions that the wealthy governments control, like the World Bank. Such projects include not only research on pests and crops but also programs to help farmers adopt improved methods in their fields."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/business/worldbusiness/18focus.html

December 2007: "Since 2000, sales of heavy-duty trucks have risen sixfold while car sales have risen eightfold. This has created myriad problems, from gridlock that chokes China’s cities to pollution that chokes its citizens, contributing each year to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths from heart and lung problems, according to the World Bank."

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/08/world/asia/08trucks.html

October 2007: World Bank officials will hire two independent consultants to investigate complaints about the reliability of HIV test kits in India, they said this week in response to allegations from a doctor who sounded alarms about faulty products.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/12/AR2007101202167.html

October 2007: Bank managers, in a written reply and an interview on Sunday, said the evaluation team had not given enough recognition to the new directions the bank had taken since African leaders committed in 2003 to increase spending on agriculture.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/15/world/africa/15worldbank.html

October 2007: Most banks have found it far too costly to set up services for the billions of poor people in developing countries. But with cellphone banking, which eliminates most administrative costs, banks could soon find it worth their while to serve the poor. On a continent with more than 225 million cellphone users – double what it had just two years ago, according to World Bank statistics – the impact could be profound on poor families' ability to save for a house, plan for emergencies, or get a loan.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1012/p01s03-woaf.html

September 2007: Agriculture is still a significant part of the economy, but its significance has changed. Large commercial fields of genetically modified soybeans have replaced smaller farms with cotton, tobacco and food crops. Those smaller farms employed about one person for every 20 acres, while the soybean farms employ one person for every 495 acres, according to a 2005 World Bank report on rural poverty in Argentina.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/13/AR2007091302424.html

September 2007: The World Bank and the United Nations announced Monday that they were setting up a system to help developing nations recover assets stolen and sent abroad by corrupt leaders that amount to an estimated $40 billion a year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/18/world/18nations.html

June 2003: The largest energy infrastructure development in Africa, the Chad-Cameroon pipeline is to begin operation later this year. Built by a consortium of oil companies led by Exxon Mobil, it is expected to provide average annual revenue of $50 million. The World Bank Group has invested more than $180 million in the project, insisting that the pipeline's profits could significantly improve the lives of Chad's residents, most now living in squalor, by paying for services like health care, education, paved roads, electricity and sewer systems.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/07/arts/07BANK.html

July 2007: SHANGHAI, July 4 — Chinese government officials pressed the World Bank into removing estimates of the number of premature deaths linked to pollution in China from a bank report, according to a person involved in drafting the report.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/05/world/asia/05china.html

May 2007: Advocacy groups and development experts took aim at an unwritten rule that has for six decades governed the financial institutions created in the aftermath of World War II: The U.S. president picks the World Bank chief, and Europe selects the head of its affiliate institution, the International Monetary Fund.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/18/AR2007051800157.html

May 2007: The World Bank executive board has concluded that the bank's president, Paul D. Wolfowitz, broke ethics rules in engineering a hefty pay raise for his girlfriend, and plans to try to end his tenure next week, senior bank officials said yesterday.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/11/AR2007051102492.html

April 2007: As he prepared to sign a five-year contract as World Bank president in the spring of 2005, Paul Wolfowitz sent his personal lawyer, Robert Barnett, to negotiate the terms. Barnett, whose high-profile clients have included some of Washington's biggest political and media figures, did not mince words in his meetings with the bank's legal team.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/14/AR2007041401564.html

December 2005: In a recently released book, the World Bank says that the potential benefits for the world's poor of a far-reaching trade deal 'are significantly lower' than it had previously thought.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/16/AR2005121601689.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Cooperation (past or present) GAVI Alliance Organization Jun 20, 2007
Status/Name Change from International Bank for Reconstruction & Development Organization May 4, 2005
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) International Finance Corporation (IFC) Organization Oct 29, 2006
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) Organization Oct 16, 2008
Cooperation (past or present) Satyam Computer Services Organization Oct 16, 2008
Owned by (partial or full, past or present) US Federal Government - Independent Agencies Organization May 4, 2005
Supported by (past or present) Dean Acheson Person Apr 14, 2008
Advised by (past or present) Joseph R. Antos Ph.D. Person Jan 28, 2007
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Nancy Birdsall Person Apr 15, 2007
Opponent (past or present) Rafael Correa Person Jul 31, 2007
Organization Executive (past or present) Guy De Poerck Person Oct 16, 2008
Advised by (past or present) Marc Goldwein Person Mar 1, 2010
Employee/Freelancer/Contractor (past or present) Jeffrey C. Hooke Person May 21, 2007
Organization Executive (past or present) Kenneth G. Lay Person Oct 16, 2008
Organization Executive (past or present) Danny Leipziger Person Sep 19, 2007
Organization Executive (past or present) Prof. Joseph E. Stiglitz Person Jan 5, 2006
Organization Executive (past or present) Lawrence H. Summers Person
Organization Executive (past or present) Frank Vogl Person Jul 24, 2007
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) James D. Wolfensohn Person
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Prof. Paul D. Wolfowitz Person May 6, 2005
Organization Head/Leader (past or present) Robert B. Zoellick Esq., MPP Person Sep 18, 2007

Articles and Resources

63 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
Apr 22, 2011 China Curbs Fancy Tombs That Irk Poor

QUOTE: Some local governments would like those who succeed not to lord it over others, at least when it comes to paying final respects... “Of course, if we cannot change the fact of the disparity between the rich and poor, the least we can do is lessen the impact of it on society and lessen the advertising of it.”

 New York Times
Dec 21, 2010 African Farmers Displaced as Investors Move In

QUOTE: Across Africa and the developing world, a new global land rush is gobbling up large expanses of arable land. Despite their ageless traditions, stunned villagers are discovering that African governments typically own their land and have been leasing it, often at bargain prices, to private investors and foreign governments for decades to come.

 New York Times
Aug 30, 2009 In Oil-Rich Niger Delta, the Sun Never Sets: Smokestacks Still Shooting Out Gas Flares

QUOTE: As many as 100 flares burn at petroleum companies' outposts across the oil-rich [Niger] delta, belching harmful greenhouse gases and, human rights activists say, sickening residents [of Nigeria].

 Washington Post
Aug 27, 2009 A national shame: Malnutrition in Guatemala

QUOTE: according to Unicef almost half of Guatemala’s children are chronically malnourished—the sixth-worst performance in the world.

 Economist
Aug 20, 2009 Lead Sickens 1,300 Children in China

QUOTE: Lead pollution from a newly opened and unlicensed manganese smelter has poisoned more than 1,300 children in southeastern China’s Hunan Province...

 New York Times
Aug 17, 2009 The Muslim Madrassa Myth: The problem with Arab education goes beyond a few extremist schools.

QUOTE: [Middle Eastern] Government schools that do educate the masses are mind-numbing and anachronistic, utterly useless for helping graduates face global competition. And their failures are far more dangerous.

 Newsweek
Aug 11, 2009 China’s Incinerators Loom as a Global Hazard

QUOTE: After surpassing the United States as the world’s largest producer of household garbage, China has embarked on a vast program to build incinerators as landfills run out of space. But these incinerators have become a growing source of toxic emissions, from dioxin to mercury, that can damage the body’s nervous system.

 New York Times
Jul 15, 2009 Continental divide separates Africans, African-Americans (Black in America 2)

QUOTE: African immigrants to the United States say cartoonish caricatures and a Western media penchant for reporting on Africa's disease, hunger and war -- rather than the continent's successes -- trivialize their cultures.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Jul 09, 2009 G-8 leaders pressured to honor aid pledges: The global recession has helped reduce aid from wealth nations – even as it pushes millions more into poverty.

QUOTE: Underlying the alarm over a rising tide of poverty, infant mortality, and hunger is the criticism that wealthy nations have not honored their commitments to substantially increase global aid.

 Christian Science Monitor
Jul 02, 2009 Honduras Targets Protesters With Emergency Decree: Media in Country Also Feel Pressure

QUOTE: The new Honduran government clamped down on street protests and news organizations Wednesday as lawmakers passed an emergency decree that limits public gatherings following the military-led coup that removed President Manuel Zelaya from office.

 Washington Post
Jun 11, 2009 The Amazon: The future of the forest:

QUOTE: Brazil’s government hopes that land reform in the Amazon will slow deforestation. Greens doubt it

 Economist
Apr 24, 2009 Nigeria: The Hidden Cost of Corruption: Who are the biggest victims of widespread bribery?

QUOTE: the Berlin-based group Transparency International has consistently ranked Nigeria among the world's most corrupt countries.

 Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)
Dec 04, 2008 Green Inc.: Paying Poor Countries to Save Trees

QUOTE: Scientists and environmentalists want mechanisms to reward the developing world for saving its forests incorporated into any such treaty....furious response from groups that say that the developing world has a right to boost its economic development through forestry.

 New York Times
Oct 10, 2008 World Bank Under Cyber Siege in 'Unprecedented Crisis'

QUOTE: The World Bank Group's computer network — one of the largest repositories of sensitive data about the economies of every nation — has been raided repeatedly by outsiders for more than a year....the bank is trying hard to pretend to outsiders it didn't happen.

 Fox News
Jun 30, 2008 Hoarding Nations Drive Food Costs Ever Higher (The Food Chain)

QUOTE: When it comes to rice, India, Vietnam, China and 11 other countries have limited or banned exports. Fifteen countries, including Pakistan and Bolivia, have capped or halted wheat exports. More than a dozen have limited corn exports. Kazakhstan has restricted exports of sunflower seeds. The restrictions are making it harder for impoverished importing countries to afford the food they need. The export limits are forcing some of the most vulnerable people, those who rely on relief agencies, to go hungry.

 New York Times
May 24, 2008 Food Costs Push Bangladesh to Brink of Unrest

QUOTE: Frustrations over inflation have become increasingly common here, particularly among garment workers such as Dulalmia who, while never well off, had at least managed to feed themselves. Many now fear, however, that those frustrations could ultimately undermine the stability of the entire country, one of the world's poorest.

 Washington Post
May 23, 2008 U.S. in Difficult Position Over Japan’s Rice Plan

QUOTE: They say that the Japanese plan risks setting off a trade dispute with the United States — and may barely dent the price of rice. Yet opposing the Japanese plan could put the United States in a delicate diplomatic position. The price of rice, the most important staple food of the world’s poor, has risen faster than any other cereal, nearly tripling this year alone, according to rice traders. The high prices have caused protests in many countries and, according to World Bank officials, pushed 100 million people back into poverty.

 New York Times
May 19, 2008 World Aid Agencies Faulted in Food Crisis: Failure to Support Agriculture Cited

QUOTE: Wade's broadside is part of a backlash against multilateral organizations that were created after World War II -- including the FAO, the World Bank and the World Food Program -- tasked with weaving together a safety net for the world's poorest. The recent spike in food prices has ripped a massive tear in that net, triggering riots around the world and threatening to plunge more than 100 million people into extreme poverty.

 Washington Post
May 17, 2008 World’s Poor Pay Price as Crop Research Is Cut (The Food Chain)

QUOTE: This is a stark example of the many problems that are coming to light in the world’s agricultural system. Experts say that during the food surpluses of recent decades, governments and development agencies lost focus on the importance of helping poor countries improve their agriculture.

 New York Times
Dec 08, 2007 Trucks Power China’s Economy, at a Suffocating Cost

QUOTE: Yet cleaning up truck pollution presents complex problems for China’s leaders. For instance, regulators have begun raising emissions standards for new trucks, but have left millions of older ones belching black smoke. Forcing businesses and farmers to buy more expensive vehicles could put a drag on the economy...

 New York Times

63 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 20]   [End]