Every good idea, it has been said, needs to be re-invented from time to time. The World Bank is no exception. Ever since globalisation first eased and then speeded up the flow of private capital across borders, the Bank has increasingly been looking to retain its relevance, with little success so far.
There was a time, through the 1960s, 1970s and most of the 1980s when it had not just borrowers but also the best brains queuing up outside its doors. No longer. The 1990s changed all that. Now private capital accounts for nearly 90 per cent of cross border capital flows.
In other words, the Bank is all dressed up with nowhere to go. To make matters worse, there has been an implicit politicisation of its lending programmes in the 1990s that has occurred because of the switch from project lending to structural adjustment lending. It has also had to explicitly link its lending to poverty amelioration.
As a result, its programmes have become rather like India