Getting to Know the World Bank Group

The World Bank Group is an international development organization with 189 member countries. It works to reduce poverty and boost shared prosperity on a livable planet by providing policy advice, technical expertise, and financing to the governments of low- and middle-income countries. As one of the world’s largest sources of funding and knowledge for developing countries, it plays a key role in promoting sustainable development for people and the planet. This includes strengthening economies, raising living standards, and ensuring all people have access to essential services and opportunities, especially jobs.

How the World Bank Group was created

The World Bank Group was established in 1944 to help rebuild Europe and Japan after World War II. Its official name then was the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). When it first began operations in 1946, it had 38 members. Today, most countries in the world are members.

How the World Bank Group is organized

The World Bank Group has now evolved to include five interconnected institutions, each with a particular area of expertise:

• IBRD provides policy advice and loans to low- and middle-income countries;
• The International Development Association (IDA) provides grants and low-interest loans to low-income countries;
• The International Finance Corporation (IFC) encourages private sector growth through lending and mobilizing other investors;
• The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) offers political risk insurance, known as guarantees, to encourage private investment in developing countries; and
• The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) helps private investors and foreign countries resolve disputes when differences arise.

Do we need a World Bank Group?

Without institutions like the World Bank Group, many developing countries and emerging economies would face greater challenges in achieving their development goals. The organization helps countries to grow sustainably, reduce poverty, and build resilience by providing financial resources, expert advice, and innovative solutions. What distinguishes the World Bank Group is its ability to leverage donor investments and fund at scale, bring together the public and private sectors, and produce extensive knowledge and research to drive development. It also plays a critical role in responding to global crises, mobilizing private capital, and promoting inclusive growth.

How decisions are made

The World Bank Group is run like a giant cooperative. Its members are shareholders, and it is operated for the benefit of those using its services. The number of shares a country has is based roughly on the size of its economy. The United States is the single largest shareholder, followed by Japan, China, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom. The remaining shares are divided among the other member countries.

A Board of Governors represents the World Bank Group's government shareholders. Generally, these people are the member countries’ ministers of finance, central bank governors, or other senior officials. The governors are the ultimate policymakers. They meet once a year at the Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF) that take place in October.

At the Annual Meetings, the governors of the World Bank Group and IMF review the organizations’ operations and policies, discuss major development issues, and approve key documents like financial statements. They also set global priorities for the coming year (and near future) to speed up progress on reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity.

Since the governors meet only once a year and are more focused on the overall strategic direction, they give specific duties to their Executive Directors, who work on-site at the World Bank Group. Every member country is represented by an Executive Director. The five largest shareholders each appoint an Executive Director, while another 19 Executive Directors represent the other member countries. Together, these 24 Executive Directors oversee the World Bank Group's regular, ongoing business, including approving loans and guarantees, new policies, the administrative budget, country assistance strategies, and borrowing and financial decisions.

Financing from the World Bank Group

The World Bank Group lends money to middle-income countries at lower interest rates  than those offered by commercial banks. It also provides interest-free loans and sometimes grants to the developing countries most in need, those that often can’t find other sources of funding. Countries that borrow from the World Bank Group have a much longer period to repay their loans than commercial banks allow and don't have to begin repaying for several years.

Source of money

The World Bank Group borrows the money it lends from investors. It has a AAA credit rating—the highest possible—because it maintains large, well-managed financial reserves and is also well trusted. This means it can borrow money at low interest rates from capital markets all over the world to then lend to developing countries on favorable terms.

The World Bank Group’s financial reserves come from several sources, including funds raised in the financial markets, earnings on its investments, fees paid by member countries, contributions made by members (particularly the wealthier ones), and borrowing countries themselves when they repay their loans.

When a country needs money for a project, the World Bank Group only lends a portion of it.  The borrowing country must get the rest of the money from other sources or use its own funds. Because the country has to repay its loans, it ultimately pays for most, if not all, of the project itself.

What the loans support

The World Bank Group provides loans to help countries tackle their most pressing development challenges. This work is focused on several priority and cross-cutting development areas that include:

• People: Building schools and training teachers, expanding health care, improving girls’ education, and other social services.
• Prosperity: Supporting economic growth, increasing job creation, encouraging private sector development, and more.
• Planet: Supplying safe drinking water, increasing agricultural productivity, managing forests and natural resources, and other planet-focused projects.
• Infrastructure: Building and maintaining roads, railways, and ports, extending telecommunications networks, generating and distributing energy, and more.
• Digital: Boosting connectivity, supporting digital public infrastructure, and other projects that connect people to digital services.

The World Bank Group also mobilizes additional investments and loans from countries, companies, and private investors to support projects. In addition to financial resources, it offers countries policy and technical advice, applies its high environmental and social standards, and ensures projects are implemented effectively.

How does a project work?

Here are the main steps:

• A project typically begins when a country identifies a development need, creates a plan, and requests support from the World Bank Group. The government and World Bank Group experts together study and refine the project plan.  
• World Bank Group staff carefully review the proposed project, asking questions like: Will the project help the country's economy? Will it benefit those most in need, including women and other marginalized groups? What are the potential environmental impacts, both now and in the future? Can other funding sources be found? Will the country be able to sustain the project once funding ends? The World Bank Group also assesses risk and the implementing agency’s capacity to undertake and complete the project.
• Negotiations then take place to finalize the project plan and the implementation strategy. Once an agreement is reached and the loan or grant is approved, work can begin. The World Bank Group supervises implementation of the project, carefully monitors progress, and pays out the loan in installments linked to project milestones. 
• Assessing the impact of projects is essential, since resources are scarce and must be used where they can have the greatest chance for success. Monitoring and evaluation help project managers know if programs are reaching the people they are aimed at and can inform the design of future projects. Tools like the World Bank Group Scorecard help track progress and ensure accountability.

A knowledge Bank

Beyond loans and funding, the World Bank Group is also one of the world’s largest and most trusted sources of development data and research. It provides access to more than 500,000 publicly available documents and reports, along with free, open access to global development data. This knowledge forms the foundation of the robust expert analysis and advice the organization provides to countries.

As part of its efforts to become a better Bank, the organization is strengthening how it collects, stores, and shares knowledge to help countries stay on track with their development goals. A key part of this is the World Bank Group Academy, a one-stop platform for capacity building for officials of member countries, the private sector, and civil society. The Academy offers over 150 Practitioner Programs across all sectors and includes Impact Programs, which support a select number of countries in sharing learning and experiences, adapting solutions, and scaling impact to the most urgent development challenges.

(Page last updated September 2025)