The World Bank
Bureaucracy is one of the pillars of modern western society. Although this statement is debatable from many aspects, most would agree that, at the very least, our lives are greatly affected by bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is the 'pure form of rational organization' (Newson, Jan 11). Not only is it a method for achieving goals efficiently and effectively, but it is acclaimed as the most able strategy to meet objectives. The World Bank is a classic example of a bureaucratic organization. It embodies all the characteristics necessary to qualify; from its complicated hierarchy and impersonal relations, to the specialization and career orientation of its employees. However, not everyone agrees on the competency of the bureaucratic organizational system. George and
Sabelli in their book Faith and Credit claim that is the very structure of the
World Bank which causes its failures, as well as explaining its continued existence despite these mistakes. Using Faith and Credit, with a focus on chapter six, it will be shown that it is the bureaucratic methods themselves which twist the World Bank's goals, and that these methods undermine the tasks which the Bank has set for itself.
The World Bank is one of the world's most powerful agencies. Although it characterizes itself as a purely economic institution -- which controls the lending of billions of dollars -- in practice its influence, wealth, and policies all result in having immense political power (Faith 1). Although originally created to serve as an institution to help rebuild the world (i.e.
Europe) after World War II, its task has since shifted to development work and poverty reduction. Through its immense control of wealth, and its international reputation, the Bank has managed to lend billions to 'under-developed' nations.
The loans take many forms, including financing of mega-projects and structural adjustment. Beginning in the 1980's vast amounts of criticism on the Bank's policies began to appear, finding faults in much of its work. Many of its projects have been declared more harmful than helpful, often worse names have been used. The Bank has managed to make enemies in many activist circles; including environmentalists, feminists and even the people whose aim is to please: poverty workers (Faith 6). Nevertheless the Bank still remains an eminent institution. It is well respected by many intel...
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...iticized as an institution which repeatedly fails to attain its goals, and in fact has forgotten them. Although the Bank has the world's cream of the crop development workers, its own structure has stifled, and silenced these individuals to the point of falling behind in development strategies and not adapting to real world situations of the poor. Its own structure has encouraged a quantity not quality philosophy, any attempts to change this philosophy have only exasperate the problem. Finally the poor reputation of the World Bank, due to its own follies, has led to the Bank to shift its focus from development to self preservation, not through correction of errors, but through falsely presenting itself. It is the very bureaucratic nature of the World Bank which hasled to its failure. Although clearly this paper does not discredit bureaucracy as a world system, it does present the idea that perhaps bureaucracy is not the most efficient and effective method of achieving goals, in all situations. Bibliography
George, Susan and Sabelli, Fabrizio. Faith and Credit: The World Banks Secular
Empire. Penguin, Toronto: 1994.
Newson, Janice. In class lectures. January 18th and 25th, 1996.
The early decades of the nineteenth century saw the establishment of banks in the Caribbean largely as a convenience for the local governments. Throughout much of the nineteenth century, most Caribbean banks operated as an oligopoly with limited government influence – this directly translated into higher profits. However, over time, the banking environment could best be described as complex and dynamic. Competition increased, resulting into greater need for improved customer service, product innovation and cost reduction strategies. In order to achieve this, the banking sector was undergoing major structural reforms characterized by mergers and acquisitions. On July 23, 2001 Barclays and CIBC announced that they were in advanced discussions which were intended to lead to the combination of their retail, corporate and offshore banking operations in the Caribbean.
The foremost challenge was the seamless promotion of the existing banking system and channels for the installation of new state-of-art IT infrastructure. In this regard, the changes made to the structure and functioning of the financial institution challenged the regulatory structure of the bank.
1. As far as peace keeping methods go, the reputation of the United Nations is very pitiable. This is not only because they have not been doing their job to it’s fullest extent, but also because the member states on the security council haven’t given the UN the power it needs if it is to be a successful force in peace keeping methods.
The IMF was not designed to be an aid agency but its role in economic
The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were created as a result of the Bretton Woods Conference. Both provide assistance to countries suffering economically. While the IMF is a cooperative institution that aims to create an organized global system of payments and receipts, the World Bank is an institution that aims to help developing countries (Driscoll 1). Both play a part in the economies of struggling nations with the goal of reducing their burden and helping them to survive in the global economic system. Unfortunately, in many cases their practices within developing nations have been seen to create more harm than good. This is possibly because both institutions use a one size fits all approach when aiding countries rather than gaining a deep understanding of each country they are involved in and catering their approach as a result. In this paper I will examine the practices of the IMF and World Bank in developing nations that have led to failure and the effects the policies had on these countries.
To decrease HIV transmission and to minimise the impact of the epidemic, on children, young people and families, through the growing effectiveness of national action to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the East of Asia and the Pacific regions. They aim to provide practical support and aid at community level, encouraging the full engament of people affected by HIV/AIDS.
If a level production is adopted, fund needs will change, and the company will have to renegotiate the agreements with its primary bank, City Trust Company.
“If you owe your bank a hundred pounds, you have a problem; but if you owe it a million, it has.(1)”
(United Nations Children's Fund [UNICF], n.d.)The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is a leading advocate for women and children rights. Founded in 1946 and active in 157 countries and territories around the world. The UNICEF has committed it resources to achieve results for children in five major areas:
...e of the challenges that the Grameen Bank has faced in the last years is that the government believed that citizens from Bangladesh are just growing a big dept that will only damage their lives in the future. However, as stated before, 98% of the loans have been repaid.
According to Pease (2012), an international organization are conceived as formal institutions whose members are states and these are divided into two sub-groups called intergovernmental organizations (IGO) and non-governmental organizations (NGO). An IGO consists of states that voluntarily join, contribute financially, and assist in the decision making process. All of their members’ resolves, structures, and administrative protocols are clearly outlined in the treaty or charter. An example of an IGO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). First, all IGOs comes from an established government which can be further categorized by rules of membership which qualifies NATO because it is an alliance of about 30 members from North America and Europe. Secondly, IGOs can have limited participation in membership or restricted membership which qualifies NATO because this is a security agreement and it limits its involvement by confining it to an amalgamation of specific governmental, geographical, and martial considerations. Thirdly, IGOs are categorized by their purpose meaning the member can be multi or general purpose organization and they can take on any global issue (Pease, 2012). This qualifies NATO because over the years the organization has participated in several international war related issues such as the Korean War and the Cold War. Most recently, NATO, for the first time in history had to engage Article 5 of the treaty after the 9/11 attacks in New York City and the no-fly zone in the country of Libya.
Next, Islamic banking also are misinterpret as not profitable as it forbidden riba’ in its practices. Also, we need to aware the customers that Islamic banking not just an alternative for finacial approach, but it also provides better value to the customers.
It is true that academic pursuit of education is rigorous and many systems of education are needed to be incorporated. However, if banking education is consumed over problem-posing education, then we dehumanize the persons in the system when we should in fact driving towards a liberating experience for them.
Fifty-one countries established the United Nations also known as the UN on October 24, 1945 with the intentions of preserving peace through international cooperation and collective security. Over the years the UN has grown in numbers to include 185 countries, thus making the organization and its family of agencies the largest in an effort to promote world stability. Since 1954 the UN and its organizations have received the Nobel Peace Prize on 5 separate occasions. The first in 1954 awarded to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Geneva, for its assistance to refugees, and finally in 1988 to the United Nations Peace-keeping Forces, for its peace-keeping operations. As you can see, the United Nations efforts have not gone without notice.
Banks sector is playing an important role in economies. The banking industry, as the classic and the most influential of financial intermediaries, facilitates economic operations. Financial sector in the worldwide country has been changes over these years by looking the changes of financial structure environment and economic conditions. Thus, banks are a very important point to financial system and play an important role as control and contribute growth to the economic sector.