The World Bank is an international development organization owned by 187 countries. Its role is to reduce poverty by lending money to the governments of its poorer members to improve their economies and to improve the standard of living of their people.

The Bank is also one of the world’s largest research centers in development. It has specialized departments that use this knowledge to advise countries in areas like health, education, nutrition, finance, justice, law and the environment.
Another part of the Bank, the World Bank Institute, offers training to government and other officials in the world through local research and teaching institutions.

The Bank lends money to middle-income countries at interest rates lower than the rates on loans from commercial banks. In addition, the Bank lends money at no interest to the poorest developing countries, those that often cannot find other sources of loans. Countries that borrow from the Bank also have a much longer period to repay their loans than commercial banks allow and don’t have to start repaying for several years.

The Bank lends only a portion of the money needed for a project. The borrowing country must get the rest from other sources or use its own funds. Eventually, since the country has to pay back its loans, it ends up paying for most, if not all, of the project itself.

The Bank also tries to encourage investment and lending by countries, companies, and private investors. It also lends money to hire industry experts to help countries to reshape their economies to make them more efficient and productive.

Money isn’t the only type of support that the Bank provides.  Often, it is the advice and experience the Bank’s staff brings to a project or the environmental and social standards it applies that are also important.

To learn more about the World Bank, please visit https://www.worldbank.org/ext/en/home.

Visit the World Bank Social Media here: