World Bank - IMF
The World Bank is an institution created in 1944 with the goal of providing both financial and technical assistance to undeveloped countries for the purpose of helping in developing programs. One of its first loans had been granted to France in order for the country to repair its damages after WWII. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been established in 1945 by several nations with the purpose of preventing a state of depression like that the U.S. went through in 1930 from happening. Next to that, the IMF is also meant to provide financial aid by lending money to countries in need of assistance.
Both the World Bank and the IMF had been founded in Bretton, New Hampshire, USA to support the world's economy. Most people regard the IMF and the World Bank as being practically the same thing, as they cannot differentiate one from the other. The fact that there are a lot of similarities between the two institutions brings further dilemma when attempting to make distinctions between the two.
If truth be told, the two organizations are very dissimilar primarily because of each has a specific key purpose. While the World Bank is intended to assist in the development of the world's countries, the IMF's purpose is to keep a balance in the world's economy concerning financial operations between countries.
The effectiveness of the two has often been doubted with several other institutions from countries receiving assistance being able to take advantage of the funds provided by either the World Bank or the IMF. Another reason for why some condemn the two institutions is the belief that the U.S. had actually created the World Bank and the IMF in order to gain benefits from the deal.
Both the World Bank and the IMF would certainly be more effective if their leaders would not give conditioned help and would see that all the people in the world would benefit the systems equally.
Works Cited
Driscoll, David. The IMF and the World Bank: How Do They Differ?. International Monetary Fund. http://www.imf.org/external/index.htm (accesed 9 December 2008)
