The World Bank’s Conditional Loans: A stranglehold on developing economies and societies

James Waltman
Dwight Englewood School (Englewood, NJ)

Abstract

The development agenda is a central issue in relations between international lending organizations and governments of developing economies. Alongside the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank is the other main international principal lender to about 100 developing countries in Africa, Asia, and South America. The World Bank seeks to promote development, envisioning a world freed from poverty (Easterly, 2000, p.361). The World Bank has become a bigger lender than UN agencies and countries such as the U.S. and Germany, with projects encompassing varied goals such as infrastructural development, literacy, and civil service reforms among other objectives (Mallaby, 2005, pp.75-76).

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