The World Bank and How It Shaped Public Policy In the Developing World Essay

The World Bank and How It Shaped Public Policy In the Developing World - Essay Example This research aims to evaluate and present the World Bank as an international financial institution whose avowed mandate is to support capitalist development in the third world by consciously steering developing countries towards international trade, liberalization and capital investment. Its World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development, signposts its shift to agriculture and rural development, primarily owing to â€Å"a greater recognition that improving agriculture performance is the most powerful tool we have available to reduce global poverty and hunger, both directly and indirectly†. By its own admission, its primary focus is market and investment oriented – â€Å"raising smallholder productivity, strengthening smallholder linkages with the markets, and helping better manage risks.†. Most relevant to this paper is its commitment to â€Å"develop a code of conduct for large scale foreign investment in agriculture to ensure equitable sharing of benefits.† The balance of power within the World Bank is historically overwhelmingly tilted in favor of the North. It was created during the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, where negotiations were dominated by the United States and the United Kingdom. Critics have constantly railed against the World Bank’s so-called poverty alleviating measures that have only resulted in driving third world economies deeper and deeper into debt. Its interventions in agriculture and rural development have been said to be no different.... its primary focus is market and investment oriented – â€Å"raising smallholder productivity, strengthening smallholder linkages with the markets, and helping better manage risks.† (ibid). Most relevant to this paper is its commitment to â€Å"develop a code of conduct for large scale foreign investment in agriculture to ensure equitable sharing of benefits.† (ibid). The balance of power within the World Bank is historically overwhelmingly tilted in favor of the North. It was created during the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, where negotiations were dominated by the United States and the United Kingdom. Critics have constantly railed against the World Bank’s so-called poverty alleviating measures that have only resulted in driving third world economies deeper and deeper into debt. Its interventions in agriculture and rural development have been said to be no different. In truth, however, the prescription package that is contained in these structural adju stment programs, particularly its explicit support for laissez-faire agrarian reform, have led to even deeper poverty and rural inequality. This is because land redistribution strategies that are not backed by coercive State power and only rely on the â€Å"efficiency of the market† are often hijacked by the elite and the dominant classes in the countryside. By its inordinate emphasis on land titling as the primary solution out of rural poverty, the World Bank has managed to reframe the land reform imperative in the developing world by obscuring core issues of systemic exploitation and social relations of production under the jargon of efficiency and equitable land markets. 1.2 Contextual Backdrop The global food crisis of 2007-2008, attended by a sudden and alarming spike in food prices and the skyrocketing costs of