ABSTRACT
Few scholarly works have investigated how the World Bank (WB) has navigated across the post-Washington Consensus through the crises of 2007–2009, and none has to date factored in its internal reorganization. Exploring these issues is of paramount importance to advance informed opinions about the Bank’s ability to continue playing a pivotal role in the context of Global Economic Governance (GEG). This study intends to fill this gap, unpacking the evolution of World Bank politics and practices to eradicate poverty and enhance shared prosperity during an era of crisis and post-crisis. The chapter focuses on how the Bank’s policies and programmes have interacted with internal organizational change and the redefinition of the post-Washington Consensus, also in light of the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and of the graduation patterns of some among the Bank’s shareholders. By connecting the WB crisis lending patterns and their development impact, to the 2008–2010 the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) “voice and participation reform”, and to the World Bank Group (WBG) 2013 reorganization, the chapter contextualizes the “obsolescence thesis”, according to which the WB would be unsuitable to respond to the challenges of the new global economy. Despite numerous setbacks, the chapter contends, and compared to other donors, the WB has played a key role in meeting the needs of its members, by scaling up lending and adapting its products to address global food and financial crises. Several problems however persist, which, if not addressed, may doom the organization’s future success. Connecting its internal reform to the WB external performance, the chapter argues, is key to understand the potential of the organization for the GEG of the third millennium.
