World+Bank

[|The World Bank]was created in 1944 following the Bretton Woods Conference. It is a financial institution comprising two entities: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and the International Development Association (IDA). The World Bank is part of the overall World Bank Group that includes the International Finance Cooperation (IFC), the [|International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)], and the [|Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA)]. The mission of the World Bank is to reduce poverty in poor and middle income countries. Membership of the World Bank is global and open to all countries that are members of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and currently there are 188 members. As a financial institution, it provides funding, loans, credits and grants to develop capacity to support institutions in areas such as education, health, public administration, infrastructure, financial and private sector development, agriculture and environmental and natural resource management.

=World Bank's work related to trade facilitation= Trade facilitation is one of the trade-related pillars of the work of the World Bank. The objective of its work on trade facilitation is "to reduce the costs associated with moving goods along international supply chains, whether these are measured in terms of time, money, or reliability". Priority areas for the World Bank are:
 * trade corridors used by land-linked developing countries;
 * regional trade facilitation frameworks;
 * improving markets for logistics services;
 * increasing the efficiency of border management;
 * facilitating cross-border movement of service suppliers; and
 * improving access to trade finance and related insurance and guarantee products for SMEs.

The World Bank provides support to developing countries through funding, advice and research. It supports trade facilitation projects, in particular Customs reform and modernization, in many countries worldwide. Useful tools developed by the World Bank are the Trade Transport Facilitation Assessment. The World Bank is also one of the so-called Annex D organizations that support the WTO negotiations on trade facilitation.

=World Bank instruments that are covered in this wiki=
 * Doing Business ||
 * Doing Business Case Studies ||
 * Logistics Performance Index ||
 * Trade and Transport Facilitation Assessment ||