The World Bank and Poverty: The Plight of the World's Impoverished Is Still a Major Concern of the International Agency

. Since the early 1980s, the World Bank has taken on new tasks in addition to its regular development finance function: preventing economic collapse in borrower countries, helping heavily indebted countries cope with their international payments difficulties, and encouraging basic economic policy reform and structural adjustment in developing countries. Many critics worry that, as the World Bank has taken on these new responsibilities, it has lessened its concern about poverty. The Bank and its friends argue that poverty alleviation remains a central element of the Bank's agenda, but the world situation is different than it was during the 1970s and new kinds of action are needed today. The Bank believes that economic reform and structural adjustments are crucial elements of a modern anti‐poverty program. Many critics believe that structural adjustment programs may seriously hurt the poor. Exploring the arguments and reporting the ways the World Bank has sought to respond to this controversy, the author concludes that the issue is a fundamental disagreement about whether the new modes of Bank lending and the Bank's new policy emphasis will have a positive or negative effect on the poor.