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Foreword
The world has changed dramatically over the last five decades and so has the World Bank. The Fiftieth Anniversary of the World Bank has provided us with an opportunity to reflect on and learn from the Bank's experience and to apply the lessons to the Bank's future agenda.
This series of essays is devoted to improving understanding of the evolving role of the World Bank. Each essay analyzes the Bank's approach to the major development challenges its borrowing countries have faced, starting with the reconstruction and development needs of Europe and Japan in the 1940s and 1950s and ending with the transition of Central and Eastern Europe and the fortner Soviet Union. One essay examines the evolution of the Bank's relations with the world's capital markets as it mobilizes private savings for development.
An overview paper provides a picture of the fifty-year period as a whole.
The story that emerges is one of an evolving and learning institution that has built on its successes and its mistakes. The Bank has responded with vigor and energy to the challenges confronting its borrowers. In this process, it has made a significant contribution to the
impressive developmental gains recorded in these past fifty years. In responding to those chalenges, the Bank itself has changed, learning from its experiences, deepening its understanding of the development process, and recasting its analytical and financial support to help its borrowers better.
The Bank will continue to nurture its tradition of self-evaluation and learning. These essays will, I hope, contribute to a better-informed debate on the Bank's future role. They complement the recently issued paper, The World Bank Group-Learning from the Past, Embracingthe Future, which sets out the future directions for the Bank Group.
Armeane MA Choksi Vice President, Human Resources Development and Operations Policy, and Chairman of the Bank Group Committee on the 50th Anniversary
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