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Records of the Office of the President Series

President's Council files

Shortly after assuming the Presidency, Barber Conable discontinued the Managing Committee that, during the Clausen years, had provided overall administrative control of the Bank. In its place Conable created an advisory body made up of the Bank Vice Presidents who reported directly to the President (some vice presidents reported to other vice presidents; they were excluded). This body was originally known as the Policy Committee, then renamed the President's Council in May 1988. It advised on policy decisions for consideration by the Executive Directors, on strategic objectives, resource mobilization and allocation, manpower strategies, and other managerial issues. A staff member in the President's office served as the secretary for the Committee/Council.

This series contains the official records of the Council, from May 1987 to July 1991, grouped in two subseries. The files in the first subseries, amounting to 10 linear feet, are the records of the weekly meetings of the Council, including agendas, minutes, reports, and documents discussed. The second subseries, 2 linear feet, is the set of papers distributed to the Council members for background information; the first seven files (of a total of nine) include a list at the beginning of the file providing the title of each document in the file, the originator, and the date. The files include a few pieces of correspondence and a few annotations and comments from Council members.

These records are an essential source for a researcher who wishes to understand the internal discussions in the Bank during the Conable years.

President's Council files

This series consists of the records of meetings of the President's Council that were maintained by Anapum Khanna, Special Assistant to the President. The files contain agendas and minutes of the meetings, Khanna's handwritten notes taken during meetings, talking points for the President, and papers for discussion by the Council. The series is not a complete record of all President's Council meetings for the period covered, and not all records of meetings contain an agenda or minutes.

This series is a useful supplement to the official records of the Council in WB IBRD/IDA EXC-11-32S. Not all of the official records include minutes, and Khanna's handwritten notes may fill in gaps in the official files. Furthermore, this series includes talking points for the President, all of which may not be included in the official files.

President's Council minutes

The President's Council was established by President Woods in March 1965. Originally composed of the Vice-Presidents, the Economic Adviser to the President, the General Counsel and the Directors of the Information, Administration, and Development Services Departments, the size of the President's Council increased to more than twenty members after the McNamara reorganization of 1972, including the Senior Vice-Presidents, Vice-Presidents, and Department Directors. For discussion of special topics, additional persons attended on an as needed basis.

This series consists of the minutes of the President's Council meetings prepared by the Personal Assistant to the President. It contains occasional notes, drafts and annotations by President McNamara. Minutes of the Council record President McNamara's reports on official trips, meetings or interviews, recommendations, and special assignments, and members' reports on the activities of their sector or department. Issues discussed at the weekly meeting included relations with the Board of Directors, the Annual Meeting, lending and borrowing programs, the IBRD and IFC capital increases, the IDA replenishments, the Third Window, and the work of the Pearson and Brandt Commissions. The organization of the Bank, personnel issues, the status of particular projects, and studies on population control, rural development, urban poverty, health, women or energy were also major topics on the Council's agenda.

Records of Economic Advisor Irving Friedman

Irving Friedman maintained these files on the Bank's cooperation with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in developing a supplementary financing scheme. The scheme was conceived as a response to the instability of commodity prices that frequently led to unexpected shortfalls of export earnings in developing countries. The aim was to have supplementary financing cover these shortfalls through soft loans to shield the development programs of the developing countries. IBRD/IIDA supplementary financing would offer longer-term assistance, as opposed to the International Monetary Fund's short-term compensatory financing facility.

The records include correspondence with UNCTAD, memoranda, drafts, handwritten notes by Friedman and others, meeting briefs, agendas, speeches, and official documents from UNCTAD, IMF, and IBRD on supplementary financing. The general correspondence is principally between Friedman, other Bank managers, and UNCTAD officials, especially Raul Prebish and Manuel Perez-Guerrero, Secretary Generals of UNCTAD, and Sidney Dell, Director of UNCTAD. The meetings files relate to meetings of UNCTAD, the UNCTAD Committee on Invisibles and Financing related to Trade, the Intergovernmental Group on Supplementary Finance, the Development Advisory Committee, and meetings within the World Bank. Friedman filed into the file on a meeting both documents that pre-dated the meeting and documents from activities subsequent to the meeting, so researchers will need to read through the sub-series on meetings in order to find all the items about one meeting.

In addition, three files on stabilization of prices for primary commodity products, transferred to the World Bank Group Archives separately from those on supplementary financing, are found at the end of the series.

Records of the Portfolio Management Task Force (Wapenhans Report) and follow-up

In February 1992, Lewis Preston ordered a study of the Bank's basic portfolio management and evaluation process for loans and credits. Headed by Willi Wapenhans, who was assigned to the President's office for the study, the Portfolio Management Task Force produced a report in September 1992 that is one of the most famous in the Bank's history. It argued that the Bank did not pay enough attention to the implementation and supervision of loans and that sustainable development impact is the true measure of success. The Wapenhans Report, as it came to be known, was presented to the Board of Executive Directors in November 1992. In January 1993 Preston assigned Visvanathan Rajagopalan, who as a vice president who had been a member of the advisory council to the Task Force, to coordinate discussions regarding the implementation of the recommendations in the Task Force report.

The files are in 2 parts. The first part is the files of Wapenhans as the chair of the Task Force. These files were inherited by Rajagopalan as he worked on the implementation of the report during 1993. The second are the files of Rajagopalan, both a file regarding the work of the Task Force that he had maintained while he was the Vice President, Sector and Operations Policy, and files that he created during the follow-up period.

This series is the central source for information on the work of the Task Force. It includes the record of the discussion of the Executive Directors at the time the Task Force was formed and the background documents for the meeting of the Executive Directors after the report was issued, the minutes of the meetings of the Task Force from March through June and the audio tapes and the transcripts of a 2 day meeting with partner organizations (cofinancers), and feeder studies on topics ranging from the Bank's internal culture to the use of information technology.

Records regarding the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR)

This series contains records compiled by Visvanathan Rajagopalan in his capacity as Chairman of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The records include his correspondence, agendas and travel plans for meetings, copies of papers presented at meetings or circulated prior to meetings, copies of his introductory remarks delivered at meetings, his briefing books for International Centers Week (the annual meeting of the international agricultural research centers that form the CGIAR network), and scattered reports of the CGIAR Oversight Committee and its Technical Advisory Committee. Correspondence covers meeting arrangements; appointments, salaries, and other personnel matters affecting staff; and resource allocations. The series includes a small amount of the correspondence of Wilfried Thalwitz, Rajagopalan's predecessor as chair of CGIAR.

Reorganization files

This series consists of the records maintained by Marianne Haug concerning Bank's 1987 reorganization. They include internal Bank correspondence, presentations, and reorganization follow-up reports describing the successes and weaknesses of the 1987 reorganization efforts. This is the fullest set of files in the President's office on the reorganization and its subsequent fine-tuning' in 1989.

Reorganization files

This series consists of the records maintained by J. William Stanton concerning Bank's 1987 reorganization. They include internal Bank correspondence, presentations, and follow-up reports describing the successes and weaknesses of the 1987 reorganization efforts. The files also include correspondence and reports from management consultants in connection with the 1987 reorganization, memos of Stanton's discussions with President Conable, and reorganization reports of the Steering Committee and the Support Units Task Force.

Senior Management Council official files

This series consists of the official files of the Senior Management Council maintained by its secretary. In 1982 the Senior Management Council replaced the President's Council, which had been created in 1965 by George Woods. Occasionally the Senior Management Council and the Managing Committee met jointly, and some records of the joint meetings are included.

The official records contain agendas, minutes, memoranda to the Senior Management Council, reports and studies for review, and some correspondence. Also included are materials concerning the annual dinner gatherings and retreats of the Executive Directors and members of the Senior Management Council, including drafts of the President's remarks at the dinners. A photograph of the Senior Management Council members in 1984 is included.

Senior personnel files

This series contains correspondence, memoranda, reports and other material related to personnel issues generally and senior management personnel issues specifically. The files include descriptions of positions, a 1983 attitude survey, a grade and salary structure design, management succession and development plans for senior positions and vice presidents, data on vice presidents and directors (1983 - 1985), and similar materials.

Space Files

The series concerns the expansion, retrofit and reconstruction options for buildings occupied by the Bank in Washington, DC (known as Buildings A, B, C, D, E, F and I). It is the most complete set of records in the President's office on space issues facing the Bank.

More than half of the files are reports submitted to the Bank by architects, real estate appraisers, and real estate developers. The internal memoranda and external correspondence cover such topics as the space needs of the Bank, real estate values, and the acquisition and sale of properties, in particular the agreement between the Bank and the IFC regarding the transfer of the responsibility for the IFC building. The International Monetary Fund's expansion is the subject of one file.

Speech background files

This series consists of a collection of background materials for President Clausen's speeches and other public appearances, such as television, radio, and magazine interviews. The records include correspondence and memoranda, talking points, drafts, reference materials and data, schedules, meeting summary notes, guest lists, thank you notes, and transcripts of press conferences and interviews with TV networks and magazines. The files contain some handwritten notes by Clausen. The series also includes one file from the period before he became President.

The files are arranged according to the name of the organization to whom the speech was given or the name of the organization interviewing the President. It seems likely that this background file originally contained only the invitations, correspondence, and arrangements for appearances, with the actual speeches in the chronological speech file. Over time, however, two things happened: first, the background files grew to contain data and supporting material for the content of the speech and, second, the background files came to contain external relations material not related to a specific speech. The four files on the U. S. Commission on Security and Economic Assistance, for example, principally document the Bank developing a position on the Commission and its recommendations (its report is included in the files), not a speech. Neither the chronological speech files nor the background files appears to include all the Clausen speeches; they need be used together in order to obtain a full picture of his public appearances.

Speeches

This series contains transcripts of speeches and remarks Visvanathan Rajagopalan delivered as Chairman of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and as Vice President and Special Adviser to PresidentPreston. Most of the speeches concern CGIAR, but other topics range from the engineer's role in sustainable development to safe motherhood; food security; the Bank's activities in environment and infrastructure; integrating women's issues in project, sector, and economic work; the World Conference on Education for All; and malaria control. The series includes Rajagopalan's remarks at his retirement party.

Speeches

This series consists of two subseries: President Conable's addresses and opening remarks at the Annual Meetings between 1986 and 1991, and a chronological set of speeches during the course of his Presidency. The files include correspondence, drafts, press releases, agendas, talking points, and background information about the organization or meeting to which Conable was speaking. Two speech file folders are empty, and the series appears to be incomplete.

A copy of a speech by Michel Camdessus, the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, is included with the 1989 Annual Meeting speeches.

Speeches

This series consists of a chronological collection of President A. W. Clausen's speeches delivered at seminars, meetings, and conferences to a wide variety of audiences. It is closely related to the Speech background file; sometimes there is a file unit in both series on the same event, but neither series appears to have files on all the Clausen speeches.

Statements, speeches and interviews

This series contains the official statements issued by Robert S. McNamara as President of the World Bank. The material consists of drafts by the President (some handwritten) and drafts prepared by staff (some heavily annotated)' press releases' and occasional background documents. Statements include remarks at the signing of Bank loans' statements at press conferences' airport statements' statements at Annual Meetings and Board meetings' toasts at official dinners including some toasts to McNamara given by Presidents' messages to be delivered at conferences' remarks to the U.S. Congress and messages to staff.

The set also contains transcripts of interviews and newspaper articles. The former include interviews for the NBC Today Show and Meet the Press (1974)' Segment Three (1978)' Bill Moyer's Journal on WNET (1975)' a CBS interview with Peter Jay (1977)' the ABC presentation of A Day in Shrishnagar (1980)' and appearances on the BBC (1978-1980) and on Norwegian' Japanese' German' and French television. There are also interviews for the London Times and Europa (1975)' the New York Times (1978)' Newsweek (1979)' and the Sunday Times (1980).

Subject files

This series contains some significant material on the increase of IBRD capital, the IDA VIth replenishment and the Brandt Commission. Most of the other files concern issues that President McNamara was dealing with at the end of his tenure: FY82 budget, maintenance of value, the PLO observers issue, China's membership, the establishment of an energy affiliate, and the briefing of A.W. Clausen. They often consist of background material, sometimes annotated by McNamara.

Among the materials concerning the IBRD capital increase, a file on the President's paper to the Board, Future role of the World Bank and its associated capital requirements (31 January 1977), includes McNamara's handwritten notes and drafts of memoranda on the informal meetings held with the Executive Directors to discuss the paper, minutes of the informal meetings, Programme and Budgeting J. Wood's IBRD Capital Increase Proposal and other internal memoranda, with annotations by McNamara. There are also minutes of McNamara's discussions with Kuhn Loeb partners and the U.S. Treasury.

The file regarding IDA VIth replenishment contains Senior Vice-President J.B. Knapp's memoranda on country participation, Special Advisor S. El Fishawy's memoranda on the United Arab Emirates contribution, and material on U.S. congressional approval of the IDA VIth authorization bill. The latter includes briefings for McNamara's meetings with Senators and Congressmen, the minutes of McNamara's discussions with U.S. officials Donald Regan, Meyer Rashish and Alexander Haig, and U.S. Executive Director Colbert King's memorandum on President Ronald Reagan's decision to request congressional authorization on full participation (February 1981). The file contains numerous notes, figures and annotations by McNamara.

The Brandt Commission file concerns the creation of the Independent Commission on International Development Issues. It contains McNamara's correspondence with Chairman Willy Brandt and Treasurer Jan P. Pronk, Secretary of the International Development Center David Hopper, Director of the Aspen Institute Harlan Cleveland, and Commissioners Edward Heath and Katharine Graham on the announcement, organization, work, and final report of the Commission. The file contains also two sets of McNamara's handwritten notes of and for conversations with Brandt, Hopper, Cleveland, Executive Directors, and Vice-President of External Affairs William Clark; and his drafts, or annotations of drafts, of the terms of reference, announcement and final report of the Commission. The rest of the file contains Clark's reports on his early 1977 conversations in Europe, McNamara's meetings with Brandt, and the progress of the launching of the Commission, as well as other internal memoranda on McNamara's proposal, the reactions of the Less Developed Countries (LDC) Executive Directors and members of the Group of 77, and the Bank's response to the recommendations of the Commission. Two photographs of Willy Brandt, Katharine Graham, and Shridath Ramphal, Secretary General of the Commonwealth, at the presentation to McNamara on 13 February 1980 of a copy of North-South: A Program for Survival are included.

Subject files

Visvanathan Rajagopalan maintained a series of subject files during his period as Vice President, Operations, and as Special Adviser to the President. Some of the files contain information spanning both periods, while others contain information from only one. Some files are purely topical (environment, for example) while others are on a specific meeting (for example, the file on Bellagio III) or a particular type of meeting (Bank senior staff retreats from 1987 through 1992).

Rajagopalan's files on development effectiveness provide useful background to the Wapenhans report controversy. Finally, during his tenure as Special Adviser Rajagopalan served briefly as the manager of the Information, Technology and Facilities Department, and a number of files deal with ITF management issues.

Subject files

The files in this fragmentary series contain primarily memoranda and reports on a few administrative topics. Some of the items in the files had been accumulated by Khann's predecessor as Special Assistant, Josue Tanaka. Some files are useful because they continue a subject found elsewhere; for example, the environment file in this series complements and extends the environment file found in the Haug subject files. The private sector development file postdates the Conable Presidency.

Subject files

This series provides an unusually good overview of the scope of issues handled by staff assistants in the Office of the President. Unlike the Stanton files in WB IBRD/IDA 03 EXC-11-02 which are focused on reorganization and space needs, the Haug files cover a very wide range of administrative matters and program topics. The Bank's increasing emphasis on environmental and social issues is reflected here, in such files as environment, forestry, population, and women in development. The monitoring of program operations can be traced in such files as annual sector reviews and strategy papers from Bank entities. Haug also had special interests in staff issues, reflected in files on outside interests and activities, the staff association, the staff retirement plan and staff compensation.

Haug brought some files with her to the President's office, including those on the Joint Committee on Staff Compensation and the Outside Interests Committee, from which she resigned when she joined the President's staff. In addition, a few documents from 1991 in the U.S. estate tax file post-date her tenure and presumably were filed by the President's office staff into Haug's subject file after she departed.

Transition briefing files

This series consists of briefings prepared for A.W. Clausen upon his inauguration as the World Bank's President in July 1981 and Clausen's copy of briefings on Bank operations prepared in 1986 for the Presidential transition from Clausen to Barber Conable. The files provide a broad overview of the Bank's structure and functions, as well as the status of World Bank's projects throughout the world.

The 1981 briefings on the Bank itself describe the origins, purpose, objectives, and current status of the various Bank entities, including the Financial complex, Operations, Development Policy Staff, World Bank Group Staff Association, Secretary's Department, Legal Department, Central Projects Staff, External Relations, Compensation, and the Administration, Organization and Personnel Complex. Also included are briefings on the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and on Bank/Fund collaboration.

Regional briefings summarize the history and current status of development projects throughout the world. They are arranged by region, and then by country, and typically summarize the political background, economic structure, development policy, future prospects, and the Bank's role in development. Included are briefings on Europe; Eastern Africa Region; Western Africa Region; Europe, Middle East and North Africa (EMENA); East Asia and Pacific Region; South Asia Region; and Latin America and Caribbean Region.

The briefing on Operations prepared in 1986 for in-coming President Barber B. Conable provides an overview of the Operations Policy Staff and the Energy and Industry Staff. It also gives the history and status of Bank operations in EMENA, East Asia and Pacific, South Asia, West Africa, Eastern and Southern Africa.

The series includes background material dating back to 1970.

Transition Correspondence

This small series contains President's Conable's correspondence at the time of his appointment as President of the World Bank and for the first few months of his term. The records include congratulations, thanks, job inquiries, and letters from persons advertising their services, and the correspondents include both friends and institutions such as commercial banks. The series provides an interesting view of the type of approaches made to an incoming President.

Travel briefings

This series contains records related to President Conable's trips and attendance at meetings and conferences abroad and appearances and presentations inside the United States. The first file contains a table of travel undertaken by the President from September 1986 through September 1990, with columns for the dates, region visited, the country/state/city/town/field location visited, the purpose of the trip, meeting dates, and whether Mrs. Conable accompanied the President.

The files consist of travel itineraries background information on countries, briefing notes for meetings, arrival and departure statements and sometimes speeches, press conference briefings, remarks, schedules of meetings and appointments, agendas, correspondence with government leaders (including thank you notes), lists of government officials and biographical data, general background information on countries and governments, notes on projects and field visits, and maps of the country. A videotape is included on Conable's trip to India in November 1987.

Travel briefings

This series contains the briefings prepared for President McNamara's official trips. It includes notes by McNamara, some handwritten; correspondence with senior staff and government officials; and staff reports on visits.

The briefings consist of schedules, airport statements, government lists and biographies, lists of topics for discussion, basic data and maps, background information on the political and economic situation and the Bank's operations in the country visited and, for Part II countries, aid programs and IDA contributions. Schedules, statements, biographies, and topics for discussion are often annotated by McNamara, some heavily. If the trip included more than one country, the first file may include general information on the region. While most files contain a full briefing, a few files include only the list of persons visited or a schedule.

The 1980 files on an African trip include a file of Mrs. McNamara's activities. The series includes one photo from McNamara's trip to Peru in 1976.

These files are valuable for any researcher looking at the Bank's relationship with a country. The rich analytical material in the briefing file pulls together the Bank's information on a country at a particular date which, when supplemented with McNamara's notes, give a snapshot of the country's stage of development and its political climate.

Travel briefings of staff assistants to the President

The series consists of the travel briefing files of three staff assistants for three trips during the McNamara Presidency. The first are the files of Sven Burmester, Special Assistant to the President, for the Middle East trip (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates) of March 5-16, 1975. The second are the files of Caio Koch-Weser, Personal Assistant to the President, for the West Africa trip (Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Guinea, The Gambia, and Senegal) of November 1-15, 1977. The last are the files of Oliver Lafourcade, Personal Assistant to the President, for the trip to India and Pakistan, March 28-April 1, 1981. All of these trips also have briefing files in the President's travel briefs series.

Travel files

The files in this series contain Mr. Preston's travel itinerary; briefing books that include background on the country's economy, the Bank's lending program, projects under execution, country profile and map of the country; schedules; meetings with Heads of States and representatives of member countries; minutes of meetings; arrival and departure statements; press statements; and outgoing letters to the government subjects.

The series contains both the files that the President used on the trip and the administrative files created by the President's office, most often by Gisu Mohadjer, an Executive Assistant to Preston, during the preparation for the trips. In some cases, there are Gisu Mohadjer files for a trip as well as files that appear to be the President's copy for use during the trip. Often the Mohadjer file will contain some briefing materials as well as logistical information.

The records include photographs from Mr. Preston's trips to Tanzania, Venezuela, Morocco, and India.

Travel files

The travel files are for foreign trips exclusively. They include both trips undertaken for specific operational purposes, such as raising funds for IDA and promoting bond issues in Part I countries and encouraging the establishment of development funds, banks and agencies, and trips undertaken for ceremonial activities, such as the groundbreaking ceremony of an Aluminum Smelter in Ghana. Individual trips files may include handwritten notes President Woods took during meetings with heads of state and other dignitaries, speeches, and frequently memoranda to files summarizing the purposes and highlights of important meetings, as well as invitations, acceptance and thank you letters, background or formal briefing papers on the politico-economic situation of the countries visited, itineraries, agendas, programs, flight schedules, information on lodgings and tourist attractions, maps, and newspaper clippings.

Working files - Conable/Camdessus lunches

This series contains records of President Conable's meetings with Michel Camdessus, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, between June 1989 and July 1991. The records consist of meeting agendas, briefing notes, talking points, and minutes of the meetings. The topics include Bank and Fund collaboration and operations involving debt reduction, country matters, environmental issues, and preparations for Annual Meetings issues, among others.

The file was maintained by Jennifer Volk, an Executive Assistant to the President. The official file on the lunches is missing from the Liaison files - Non-governmental and international agencies; consequently the working file provides the existing information on the meetings of these two executives.

World Bank 50th Anniversary

This is the only series in the President's office records that covers the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Bank. The files document the anniversary activities, and one file relates to the Commission on the Future of the Bretton Woods Institutions, a commission established by the private Bretton Woods Committee. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Bretton Woods Conference, the commission issued a report with recommendations on state of the international monetary system, development finance, and the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, and this file provides the Bank's view of the work of the commission.

World Bank Documents on management and operations

This series consists of sample reports compiled by the President's office to provide President McNamara with examples of the various types of documents and reports commonly produced throughout the Bank. Each sample is an actual Bank report, accompanied by a short description of the report type explaining the report structure and function within the operations and management of the Bank. Standard report types included in the series are: Monthly Operational Summary; IBRD Financial Policies Report; Administrative Budget; President's Report; Appraisal Report; Supervision Report; Audit Report; Evaluation Report; and Country Economic Report. The reports used for this sample are dated between 1971 and 1973.

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