History
The Bretton Woods Conference , formally known as the United Nations Monetary and Financial  Conference, was the gathering of 730 delegates from all 44 Allied nations at the Mount Washington  Hotel, situated in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States,  to regulate the international  monetary and financial order after the conclusion of World War II. The conference was held from July 1–22, 1944. Agreements were signed that, after legislative  ratification by member governments, established the International Bank for Reconstruction and  Development (IBRD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) was later known as the World Bank

The  Functions of the Five Institutions of the World Bank Group:

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD):
It offers assistance to middle income and poor but credit worthy countries, and it also works as an  umbrella for more specialized bodies under the World Bank.

The International Development Association (IDA):
It offers loans to the world's poorest countries. These loans come in  the form of "credits," and are essentially interest-free. They offer a 10- year grace period and hold a maturity of 35 years to 40  years.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC):
• It works to promote private sector investments by both foreign and local investors.
• It provides advice to investors and businesses, and it offers normalized financial market  information through its publications, which can be used to compare across markets.

The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA):
It supports direct foreign investment into a country by offering security against the investment in  the event of political turmoil.

The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Dispute (ICSID):
It facilitates  and works towards a settlement in the event of a  dispute between a foreign investor  and a local country.

Purpose and Functions
•The World Bank provides low-interest loans, interest-free credits, and grants. It focuses on improving education, health, and infrastructure.
• It also uses funds to modernize a  country's financial sector, agriculture, and natural resources  management.
• The Bank's stated purpose is to  "bridge the economic divide between poor and rich countries." It does this by turning "rich country resources into poor country growth”. It has a long-term vision to "achieve sustainable poverty reduction."

To achieve this goal, the Bank focuses on six areas:
1. Overcome poverty by spurring growth especially in Africa.
2. Help reconstruct countries emerging from war, the biggest cause of extreme poverty.
3. Provide a customized solution to help middle-income countries remain out of poverty.
4. Spur governments to prevent climate change. It helps them control communicable diseases, (especially HIV/AIDS and malaria). It also manages international financial crises and promotes free trade.
5. Work with the League of Arab States in three areas,to improve education, build infrastructure, and provide micro-loans to small businesses.
6. Share its expertise with developing countries reports and its interactive online database.

How has the World Bank Group helped the countries over time?
• The past 70 years have seen major changes in the world economy. Over that time, the World Bank Group—the world’s largest development institution—has worked to help more than 100 developing countries and countries in transition adjust to these changes by offering loans and tailored knowledge and advice.
• The Bank Group works with  country governments, the private sector, civil society organizations, regional development banks, think tanks, and other international institutions on issues ranging from climate change, conflict, and food security to education, agriculture, finance, and trade.
• All of these efforts support the Bank Group’s twin goals of ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity of the poorest 40 percent of the population in all countries.
• Originally, its loans helped rebuild countries devastated by World War II.
• In time, the focus shifted from reconstruction to development, with a heavy emphasis on infrastructure such as dams, electrical grids, irrigation systems, and roads.
• With the founding of the International Finance Corporation in 1956, the institution became able to lend to private companies and financial institutions in developing countries.
• And the founding of the International Development Association in 1960 put greater emphasis on the poorest countries, part of a steady shift toward the eradication of poverty  becoming the Bank Group’s primary goal.
• The subsequent launch of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency further rounded out the Bank Group’s ability to connect global financial resources to the needs of developing countries.
• To day the Bank Group’s work touches nearly every sector that is important to fighting poverty, supporting economic growth, and ensuring sustainable gains in the quality of people’s lives in developing countries.
• While sound project selection and design remain paramount, the Bank Group recognizes a wide range of factors that are critical to success—effective institutions, sound policies, continuous learning through evaluation and knowledge-sharing, and partnership, including with the private sector.
• The Bank Group has long-standing relationships with more than 180-member countries, and it taps these to address development challenges that are increasingly global.
• On critical issues like climate change, pandemics, and forced migration, the Bank Group plays a  leading role because it is able to convene discussion among its country members  and a wide array of partners.
• It can help address crises while building the foundations for longer-term, sustainable development.

Membership
• There are  189 member countries that are shareholders in the IBRD, which is the primary arm  of the WBG.
• To become a member, however, a country must  first join the International Monetary  Fund  (IMF).
• The size of the World Bank's shareholders, like that of the IMF's shareholders,  depends on  the size of a country's economy. Thus, the cost of a subscription to the World Bank is a  factor of the quota paid to the IMF.
• There is an obligatory subscription fee, which is equivalent to 88.29% of the quota that a  country has to pay to the IMF.
• In addition, a country is obligated to buy 195 World Bank shares (US$120,635 per share,  reflecting a capital increase made in 1988).
• Of these 195  shares, 0.60% must be paid in cash in U.S. dollars while 5.40% can be paid in a  country's local currency, in U.S. dollars, or in non- negotiable non-interest bearing notes.
• The balance of the 195 shares is left as "callable capital," meaning the World Bank reserves  the right to ask for the monetary value of these shares when and if necessary.
• A country can subscribe a further 250 shares, which do not require payment at the time of membership but are left as "callable capital."
•The largest shareholders include the United States (17.25% of total subscribed capital), Japan  (7.42%), China (4.78%), Germany (4.33%), and France and the United Kingdom (with 4.06% each).
• The president of the World Bank (Jim Yong Kim) comes from the largest shareholder, which is the United States, and members are represented by a Board of Governors.
• Throughout the year, however, powers are delegated to a board of  24 Executive Directors (EDs).
• The five largest shareholders-the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Japan-each have an individual ED, and the additional 19 EDs represent the rest of the member states as groups of  constituencies.
• Of these 19, however, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia have opted to be single country constituencies, which means that they each have one representative within the 19 EDs.
• This decision is based on the fact that these countries have large, influential economies, which requires that their interests be voiced individually rather than diluted within a group.
• The World Bank gets its funding from rich countries as well as from the issuance of bonds on the world's capital markets.

Opposition to the Bank
• While the WBG strives to create a poverty-free world, there are groups that are passionately opposed to the international patron.
• The opponents believe that, due to the fundamental structure of the Bank, the already existing imbalance between the world's rich and poor is only exacerbated.
• The system allows the largest shareholders to dominate the vote, resulting in WBG policies being decided by the rich but implemented by the poor.
• This can result in policies that are not in the best interests of the developing country in  question, whose political, social and economic policies will often have to be moulded around WBG resolutions.
• Moreover, even though the Bank provides training, assistance, information and other means that may lead to sustainable development, opponents have observed that developing countries often have to put health, education and other social programs on hold in order to pay back their loans.
• Opposition groups have protested by boycotting World Bank bonds. These are the bonds that the WBG sells on global capital markets to raise money for some of its activities.
• These opposition groups also call for an end to all practices that require a country to implement structural adjustment programs-including privatization and government austerity measures-an end to debt owed by the poorest of the poor, and an end to environmentally damaging projects such as mining or the building of dams.