Will more World Bank lending equal less poverty?

Two years into President Jim Yong Kim’s controversial reform process, is the World Bank better or worse at fighting poverty?

Bank management is still feeling the effects of internal turmoil and staff dissatisfaction after a $400 million cut in operational expenses and a controversial reorganization. But while these pieces of the reforms have claimed headlines, they are not the only story that can be told about the new shape of the world’s largest international financial institution.

Procurement reform, the expansion of a results-driven lending program known as Program-for-Results, an overhaul of the institution’s social and environmental safeguards, the largest replenishment of the bank’s fund for the poorest countries and a financial reform of the bank’s lending arm for middle income countries are also part of the institution’s recent history. And despite the internal noise, the World Bank this year has committed to lending more money than it has in the last four years.