World Bank of the Future: Victim, Villain or Global Credit Union?

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World Bank of the Future: Victim, Villain or Global Credit Union?

By Nancy Birdsall

Published on Sep 25, 2000

Source: Carnegie

Street protesters in Prague in September 2000 are not the only ones complaining about the World Bank. Conservative critics are pointing the finger too. On the left, champions of social justice argue that World Bank loan conditions hurt the poor. On the right, conservatives claim lending practices crowd out private investment. Critics from all sides compound public confusion about globalization and the impact on people of global financial institutions.

Nancy Birdsall dissects the critics' positions and proposes World Bank reforms rarely put on the table: end "cookie-cutter pricing" or the outdated tradition of a single interest rate and loan term no matter what; give countries like China and Brazil more voting power; and don't give up on much-maligned conditionality but fix and enforce it. Birdsall notes that governance of international financial institutions will never be perfectly representative nor accountable, in part because of failures of democracy in borrowing countries. But, conceiving of the World Bank as a club, she argues for balanced reform not shutdown.

Click on the link above for the full text of this Policy Brief.

About the Author

Nancy Birdsall

Former Senior Associate

Recent Work

Report
The Role of the Multilateral Development Banks in Emerging Market Economies
- Nancy Birdsall
Report
Washington Contentious: Economic Policies for Social Equity in Latin America
- Nancy Birdsall, Rachel Menezes

Trade North America

Carnegie India does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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