One of the strongest criticisms of the World Bank has been the way in which it is governed. Critically analyze the statement.

The World Bank’s main role is to provide loans and financial assistance to developing countries with a strong anti-poverty agenda. One of the main criticism on World Bank is on the way it is governed. The criticism is due to following reasons-

• Although World Bank has nearly 190 countries, it has Non-democratic governance structure and it is dominated by industrialized countries.
• Most of the decisions are made and policies implemented by leading industrialized countries—the G7— without consulting poor and developing countries because they represent the largest donors.
• Under representation of Emerging countries like India. New Development Bank was setup in 2015 with the objective of countering the under representation of emerging countries in World Bank and IMF
• Another issue in governance of World Bank is transparency. It doesn’t reveal on a deal to deal basis at what interest rate is it lending. To which countries is it lending cheap. Why some countries are favoured over the other.
• The key roles in World Bank always hold by Americans and Europeans and less preference is given to other countries.
• More Voting power is in the hands of industrialized countries compared to developing and under developed countries.
• The creation of NDB allows developing countries to play a bigger role in global governance.

One of the recommendation to improve governance of World Bank is to shift the focus from the needs of the USA and European countries to those of developing countries by reforming the voting structure. 

Topics: GS-II: Important International Institutions Agencies and Fora