United States Policy Toward the Multilateral Development Banks

During its first several decades, the World Bank operated with few constraints on its lending authority. Lending policies reflected primarily the economic and political objectives of Bank management and staff. With the establishment of the International Development Association (IDA) soft loan window 1960 this autonomy began to erode. The funds needed to support the IDA soft loans had to be replenished. This opened the door to greater political pressure on Bank policy by the administration and Congress. Since the mid-1980s environmental interest groups increasingly have been effective in bringing pressure to bear on World Bank and other MDB policy.