The evolving role of the World Bank : helping meet the challenge of development

The world has changed dramatically over the past five decades, and so has the World Bank. This collection is devoted to improving understanding of the evolving role of the World Bank. It presents the highlights of the following seven essays: 1) "From reconstruction to development in Europe and Japan;" 2) "The food crisis in South Asia: the case of India;" 3) "The Latin American debt crisis;" 4) "The transition in Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union;" 5) "The East Asian economic miracle;" 6) "The challenge of Africa;" 7) "Mobilizing private savings for development: IBRD and the capital markets." Each essay analyzes the Bank's approach to the major development challenges its borrowing countries have faced. The last one examines the evolution of the Bank's relations with the world's capital markets as it mobilizes private savings for development. An overview provides a picture of the fifty-year period as a whole. It examines the challenges the Bank has faced in its first half century and how they have reshaped the institution, transforming it from an organization established mainly to address postwar reconstruction needs into the world's largest development agency, focusing on sustainable poverty reduction and growth. The first half century : an overview / K. Sarwar Lateef From reconstruction to development in Europe and Japan / Caroline Doggart The food crisis in South Asia : the case of India / Uma Lele and Balu Bumb The Latin American debt crisis / Sebastian Edwards The transition in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union / Kemal Dervis, Marcelo Selowsky, and Christine Wallich The East Asian economic miracle / Vinod Thomas and Peter Stephens The challenge of Africa / Ishrat Husain Mobilizing private savings for development : IBRD and the capital markets / Kenneth G. Lay.