ABSTRACT
The World Bank, along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), plays an important role in providing external capital for developing countries. Most of the controversy has been centred upon the fairness of the structural adjustment conditions and the effects of these conditions on economic development and on the human rights practices of loan recipients. The most careful quantitative research on selection criteria has focused on the IMF and has given disproportionate attention to potential economic selection criteria. The World Bank also was less likely to give a loan to a country involved in interstate conflict. Structural adjustment conditions required by the Bank and IMF are intended to encourage recipient governments to adopt what World Bank and IMF staff refer to as ‘good governance’ policies. Human rights practices affect the probability of loan receipt, while loans affect human rights practices, which, in turn, affect the subsequent probability of loan receipt.
