The World Bank is a lending organization used by developing nations in need of finances to help provide relief from financial difficulties. Some would say that the World Bank helps countries by giving them valuable finances which developing countries need in order to bring about financial reforms. Others argue that that the World Bank has another agenda and that it only lends money to the developing nations in order to push the countries into policies of trade liberalization and privatization. This essay will examine the argument that despite claiming to reduce poverty in poorer nations the World Bank actually adds to the destabilization of the developing countries. In particular this essay will look closely at the new World Bank policy called the Highly Indebted Poor Countries Initiative and how this initiative is again being used as bargaining power over the developing world rather than helping to alleviate debt problems which was its original purpose. This topic is of particular relevance as this new initiative has only recently been implemented and the way in which it used will be of great importance to developing nations as they struggle to recover from growing debt in the next few years.
             The World Bank was first established during World War II at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The emphasis in the early stages of the World Banks development was post war rebuilding. The first loan made by the World Bank was to France in 1947 for $250 million to help it recover from the devastations of war. The World Bank (03) states that despite lending to countries post conflict or in other similar humanitarian emergencies, it has evolved into a lending institution whose main agenda involves relief to third world poverty.
             The World Bank describes itself as a specialized agency rather than a bank. It states that its aim is to bridge the gap between rich and poor nations by turning rich country resources into poor country growth. The World Ban...