From Supplicants to Shareholders: Developing Countries and the World Bank

Abstract

Complaints about the lack of influence that developing countries have on the World Bank are as old as the Bank itself. Over the years, the substance of the complaints varied and their stridency waxed and waned according to the ideological and geo-political fluctuations of the times. However, the central, disappointed, message did not vary. From the insufficiency of funds available to support development to the excessively harsh conditions attached to the loans or to the inattention given by the Bank’s staff to local specificities, ministers representing developing countries have consistently denounced these problems and stressed their frustration at not having a stronger, more influential voice in the Bank.

This chapter is based on the essay ‘The World Bank: Its Role, Governance and Organizational Culture’ which I prepared for the Committee on the Future of the Bretton Woods Institutions, April 1994. It draws on my experience as a minister in Venezuela at a time in which major structural adjustment loans were negotiated with the World Bank and, later, as an Executive Director at the Bank. It is also based on extensive interviews conducted with a number of individuals, both outside and inside the Bank, who contributed generously with their time and ideas. Previous drafts of the essay provoked numerous reactions that helped to correct facts and clarify arguments. My thanks to all of them, especially Mort Abramowitz, Tom Carothers, Domingo Cavallo, Armeane Choksi, Uri Dadush, Sebastian Edwards, Judith Evans, Jo Marie Griesgraber, Ricardo Hausmann, Gerry Helleiner, Eveline Hertkens, Shahid Husein, Enrique Iglesias, Devesh Kapur, Robert Klitgaard, Peter Mountfielcl, Joan Nelson, Lew Preston, Jeffrey Sachs, Alex Shakow, Ibrahim Shihata, Ernie Stern, Strobe Talbott, Joseph Tulchin and the several members of the staff of the Bank and different government agencies whose ideas I used, but who preferred to remain anonymous. Obviously, all remaining errors of fact or interpretation are solely mine.