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Series

Volume II drafts

The authors conceived Volume II of The World Bank: Its First Half Century as a series of essays that would look at the Bank from outside vantage points, including the points of view of borrowers, lenders, the economics profession,and political analysts. The project contracted with authors for these essays, and this series consists of submitted drafts as well as exchanges of comments with the authors. It includes both essays that were published in volume IIand also a draft on Brazil and a draft on politics and the Bank that ultimately were not included.

Liaison with external organizations, individuals, and United States government

  • WB IBRD/IDA ADMCF-08
  • Series
  • 1946 - 1971 (predominant 1969 - 1971)

The series consists of records related to liaison activities of the World Bank Group that were maintained in the centralized files. The records detail the arrangement and proceedings of meetings hosted by the Bank and meetings the Bank attended that were organized by external organizations, as well as exchanges of information and collaborative programs. Records were predominantly created between 1969 and 1971 and originated in departments who records were centralized including (but not limited to): The Technical Assistance and Liaison Department (TAL) and successor, Development Services Department (DSD); Economics Department; and Projects Department and its sector divisions. A very small volume of correspondence is authored by the Bank president or vice president, field office representatives, country departments, and IFC departments.

Organizations covered in the files include, but are not limited to: International Monetary Fund (IMF); United Nations (UN); United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC); United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD); United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO), United Nations Administrative Committee on Coordination (UNACC), United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and other UN bodies. UNDP files (1969 - 1971) mostly contain correspondence relating to UNDP representatives on assignment and detailing country activities. There are also numerous liaison files with economic commissions, private foundations, academic and scientific institutes, industry and professional associations, religious organizations, international organizations such as Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO), and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) containing correspondence to and from the Bank President McNamara, director of Development Services Department, and others. The correspondence is general in matter regarding meetings, visits, conferences, information sharing, ideas for development assistance and occasionally, Bank projects and operations. A portion of the alphabetical files (1972 - 1974) also include individual correspondents external to the Bank such as ministry and central bank officials and heads of corporations, business organizations, or academic institutions, mostly addressed to Bank president. Outgoing replies are from various country departments, Economics Department, Projects Department and sectors, development finance companies director, and others.

Internal memoranda are occasionally in the form of briefing notes, back-to-office reports, and terms of reference. Other records found in the external organization files include external reports and concept papers, and conference and meeting agenda.

The series also contains a smaller volume of records regarding the Bank's early relations with the United States government executive and legislative branches and federal agencies (1946 - 1971). Most of the records are in the form of internal memoranda and incoming and outgoing letters regarding support for foreign aid and operations. Many letters are between senior White House officials, congressmen, and the Bank president, vice president, or US executive director, and between independent US executive branch and federal government agency representatives and Bank senior staff. Bank staff correspondents include the Loan and Economic Departments, Technical Operations and Treasurer's Departments, Information and Public Affairs Department (IPA, initially under DSD), in collaboration mainly with the US Export-Import Bank (EXIM), US Agency for International Development (USAID), and US Department of Agriculture. Some correspondence is filed with proposals, meeting summaries, minutes, financial statements, data tables, Board, Economic and Staff Loan Committee documents, press clippings, copies of US legislation, agency speeches and press releases, and other records. There is also a preliminary draft paper by Carl B. Fritsche titled "The Role of the World Bank in Global Development" (1949).

Records cover routine information exchange and attendance at seminars and roundtables in addition to more substantive subjects such as: the role of the Bank in the European Recovery Project (also known as the Marshall Plan); the establishment and activities of the Bank interdepartmental committee drawn from Research Department and Loan Department to study the Marshall Plan; cooperation with the House Committee of Foreign Affairs and economic policy subcommittee; loan operations of the Bank and US Export-Import Bank and credit applications to countries, also discussion of disbursement rate, joint financing, private capital flows, and proposed US legislation; the Bank's involvement in the missions and hearings of the Committee on Banking and Currency chaired by Senator Homer E. Capehart. The Capehart Committee commissioned a study of IBRD and the Export-Import Bank operations and their relationship to expansion of international trade in 1954. There are several memoranda authored by DSD Senior Policy Planning Adviser Shirley E. Boskey reporting on the proceedings of the committee hearings and comments on draft Bank presentations to the committee.

Operations policy and project support records

The series includes records from: the Transportation, Water, and Telecommunications Department (TWT) from 1978 to 1982; the Urban Projects Department (URB) from 1978 to 1982; the Water and Urban Development Department (WUD) from 1983 to 1987; and the Transportation Department (TRP) from 1983 to 1987. These departments were primarily mixed sector departments, therefore, the records cover a broad range of topics, including but not limited to: highway maintenance and development; port development; railways;maritime transportation; water and sanitation systems maintenance and development; tourism services and infrastructure development; urban development; and telecommunication infrastructure and public utilities development. The records include: internal and external correspondence, including letters and memoranda; initiating memoranda; project files; project completion and audit reports; sector support and research files; sector policy papers; back to office reports (BTOs); terms of reference (TORs); and departmental publications. Records related to the Bank's Urban Project Program, which was originally launched in 1975 and supported by URB and later WUD are also included. The Urban Poverty Program records primarily include correspondence and reports related to various sector projects done in support of the program.

Speech reference collection

This series contains speeches made by Bank staff and, in lesser amounts, Bank consultants, Executive Directors, and government officials. These records were maintained by EXT staff as a reference collection. In addition to speeches, a small amount of similar materials are included, such as: talking points for speeches; transcripts of radio addresses, lectures, press conferences, and interviews; and a small number of published articles.

Note that, while one of EXT's responsibilities was to serve as speechwriter for the Bank President and other senior staff, there is no evidence of speechwriting activities contained in the records of this series. Additionally, EXT staff were regularly responsible for fielding requests for appearances and speeches by Bank Presidents and managing logistics related to those appearances; records related to these activities are likewise not included in this series.

Speeches of Bank Presidents

Speeches made by every Bank President from 1946 to 1999 are included. Presidential speeches contained in this series were delivered to a variety of audiences, both internally and externally, although the latter is more common. The most frequent audience is the Board of Governors at the Bank's Annual Meetings. Other external audiences include international organizations (including the United Nations and its various councils, divisions, and conferences), clubs, associations, and academic institutions.

The speeches of Bank Presidents contained in this series are often small pamphlet-sized publications. This is most commonly the case with the annual Address to the Board of Governors given at the Bank's Annual Meetings. Other formats include photocopies and press releases.

Only three speeches made by President Eugene Meyer are included in this series. Two of the speeches, both dating from 1946, are from: the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Political Science; and a dinner in honor of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Boards of Governors. The third speech, from 13 January 1947, was given to the Canadian Club subsequent to Meyer's resignation as Bank President.

President John J. McCloy's speeches date from April 1947 to June 1949. In addition to speech transcripts and the scripts of two television programs McCloy participated in, the script for his three-part lecture given at John B. Stetson University in February 1949 is also included. Statements made by McCloy to the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in January 1948 and the House Committee on Bank and Currency in May 1949 are also included.

The speeches of President Eugene Black date from 1947 to 1962. These include speeches from 1947 and 1948 made by Black while serving as the U.S. Executive Director to the Bank. In addition to his speeches, a single folder includes Bank press releases related to Black's appointment as President of the Bank and to other matters. A small number of photocopied magazine articles profiling Black are also included.

President George D. Woods' speeches date from January 1963 to May 1968. In addition to speeches, a small amount of Bank press releases related to Woods' appointment as Bank President as well as magazine articles related to Woods and the World Bank are included; the latter includes a copy of Forbes magazine dated 15 December 1963 featuring Woods on the cover. An article authored by Woods and published in Foreign Affairs magazine in January 1966 is also included.

The majority of President Robert S. McNamara's speeches are in published form and date from 1968 to 1981. Three speeches given by McNamara following his departure from the World Bank are also included: the Sir John Crawford Memorial Lecture (1 November 1985); the Africa Leadership Forum (21 June 1990); and the Annual Conference on Development Economics (25 April 1991).

President A. W. Clausen's speeches date from 1981 to 1986. Clausen's addresses to the Board of Governors are available in published pamphlet form as are a small number of other speeches. The remainder are photocopies.

President Barber Conable's speeches date from 1986 to 1991. Conable's addresses to the Board of Governors at the Annual Meetings from 1988 to 1990 include translations in a number of languages, including: Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and French.

President Lewis Preston's speeches date from 1991 to 1994. Only talking points are included for a number of his speeches.

President James D. Wolfensohn's speeches date from 1997 and are relatively few in number. Speeches are filed alongside those of other Bank staff and external political figures.

Bank staff (non-President) and other speeches

This series also contains speeches made by Bank Group staff (including International Finance Corporation [IFC] staff) and, in far less number, Bank consultants, Executive Directors of the Bank, country leaders and ministers, and other prominent external figures. The majority of the speeches are by International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) staff. Speeches date from 1946 to 1993. In addition to speeches, a small number of interview transcripts, statements, and published articles are included. In most cases, there are between one and three speeches per individual, although in the case of more senior staff, the number of items can exceed a dozen. Drafts of speeches are included, although in very small number. Translations of speeches are included for some speeches and in a few cases the speech exists only in a language other than English; in the case of the latter, the most common languages are French and Spanish.

Note that some speeches by senior External Relations staff that were filed alongside the speeches of other senior Bank staff are included in this series. These include speeches, lecture and press conference transcripts, speech notes (with hand-written annotations), and published articles dating from 1996 to 1999 by EXTVP Mark Molloch Brown.

EXT speechwriters' reference collection

A group of speeches maintained as reference copies by EXT speechwriters from 1981 to 1989 are also included in this series. Speeches made by Presidents Clausen and Conable are the most common in this collection. Conable's speeches from August 1987 to September 1989 are interfiled with speeches made by other senior Bank staff and prominent external figures. Conable's speeches, however, still make up the majority of the records during this period.

President's committee files

Shortly after assuming the Presidency, A. W. Clausen established a Managing Committee to provide overall control of the Bank's administration. This Committee played a central role in the Clausen years and was the principal vehicle through which the President administered the Bank.

Clausen inherited a President's Council that had been created by George Woods in 1965, a larger body than the Managing Committee. The President's Council, renamed the Senior Management Council in 1982, continued to exist, although it met less frequently than it had in the past. A staff member in the President's office served as the secretary for both the Committee and the Council.

This series consists of Clausen's personal files on the Managing Committee and the Senior Management Council. The records include material on organization and procedures of the Committee, its agendas, minutes of the meetings of both the Committee and the Council, and indexes to topics discussed in the Managing Committee. The minutes of the ManagingCommittee cover only 1981-1982 and 1985 through July 1987 when Clausen's term ended; complete copies of the minutes are found in the official records of the Committee. Many items have Clausen's initials and the agendas have his annotations.

Managing Committee official files

This series consists of the official files of the Managing Committee. The records include agendas, schedules of meetings, minutes of the meetings, and memoranda and reports on a range of topics reflecting senior management concerns and overall World Bank administration. The records include correspondence with most of the Senior Vice Presidents on issues for committee consideration.

The minutes of the weekly Committee meetings were prepared from manuscript notes, then a draft was circulated (called pre-record minutes), and finally a record copy was issued. The series includes a file of manuscript notes by the Committee's secretary, covering both Managing Committee and Senior Management Council meetings, from February 22 to August 30, 1982. Draft minutes, with comments from the members, exist for the meetings from October 1981 through April 1983.

The Managing Committee had three subcommittees: Finance, Operations Policy, and Personnel and Administration. Issues coming to the Managing Committee were proposed by one of the subcommittees, by the President's office, or by one of the other primary offices in the Bank. Each issue had an accompanying paper, identified by the submitting office, year, and number; for example, an issues paper for the Managing Committee submitted by the Operations Policy Subcommittee in 1983 titled Power Sector Support Strategy was numbered OPS/MC83-06. This series has a full set of issues papers, arranged alphabetically by three-letter symbol for the submitting unit. The committee secretary prepared detailed indexes to the topics discussed in the Managing Committee, and the indexes provide easy access to these submissions.

Fragmentary records of the meetings of two of the three subcommittees make up the final section of this series. All these records are from 1982 and consist of one file of the working papers of the Personnel and Administration Subcommittee and six files from the Operations Policy Subcommittee. Additional information on the work of the subcommittees can be found in the set of submitted documents, because some of the subcommittee minutes were circulated to the entire Managing Committee for information.

These records are an essential source for a researcher who wishes to understand the internal decision-making in the Bank during the Clausen years.

Contacts - Member Countries files

The Contacts - Member Countries files are the record of President McNamara's meetings with famous individuals, representatives of member countries other than the United States, and representatives of organizations (e.g., Executive Directors, Annual Meeting delegates, heads of States and organizations, government officials, parliamentarians, bankers, businessmen, industrialists, economists, journalists). The files contain minutes of meetings, briefings, questions and answers for press interviews, background material and some correspondence.

Although the minutes were generally prepared by staff from the concerned region or the Personal Assistant to the President, the files contain many memoranda of conversations and notes on meetings and visits drafted by McNamara, some handwritten. Also in McNamara's hand are a number of points to discuss for meetings and annotations on the briefs prepared by staff. Among the items personally drafted by McNamara are notes of, or for, meetings with King Baudouin (1969), Pierre Trudeau (1976), Anwar Sadat (1975), Georges Pompidou (1969), Valery Giscard d'Estaing (1972, 1975, 1979), Karl Otto Poehl, Hans Dietrich Genscher, Helmut Schmidt (1975), Indira Gandhi (1973), the Shah of Iran (1973), Felix Houphouet-Boigny (1969), Takeo Fukuda (1978), William Tolbert (1973), Nicolae Ceausescu (1968), Leopold Senghor (1969), Alec Douglas-Home (1972), Edward Heath (1973), U Thant (1969), Joseph Mobutu (1972).

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.

Presidential chronological files of Economic Advisor Irving Friedman

Irving Friedman served as the Economic Adviser to the President from 1964 until he left the Bank in 1970. Reporting directly to the President, he commented on virtually all the significant economic issues that confronted the Bank. The series, which Friedman called his Presidential chron files consists principally of Friedman's correspondence with Bank President Robert McNamara, but it also includes some correspondence with other Bank managers and one file on a memorandum from Friedman to President George Woods.

Friedman's 1964 memorandum to Woods is a commentary on an analysis by John C. Bullitt, U.S. Executive Director, of the impact on other funders of an accelerated development assistance effort by the United States Government. The files from 1968-1970 cover topics including the Grand Assize and the Pearson Commission, which were convened to help formulate a new development strategy; population planning; the second IDA replenishment negotiations; supplementary finance and debt rescheduling, among others. Also included are analyses of economic news; some reports of the Economic Committee, which Friedman chaired; reports from program studies units in the Bank; and status reports and briefs on Bank economic activities. The file on McNamara's interview consists of background information assembled for him and suggested answer to questions, particularly on financing for the Bank, borrower indebtedness and the Bank as a development institution. In addition there is one file on a commodity study and one file of minutes and matters outstanding from meetings of the Economics Group Directors, chaired by Friedman, between September 1969 and August 1970.

Executive Committee minutes

This series contains the minutes of the informal Executive Committee that started meeting weekly with the President on February 9, 1981. It was composed of the Senior Vice-Presidents, the Secretary and the General Counsel. Mattersdiscussed by the short-lived committee include the 1982-1986 lending program, the IBRD general capital increase, the IDA Sixth replenishment, the energy program, the PLO observers issue and staff compensation.

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.

Administrative files

This series contains subject files on administrative and budgetary issues involving the Bank and, occasionally, the International Monetary Fund. The records include management discussion briefs, correspondence, and reports. The files cover important topics such as Paul Volcker's meetings with Conable, the purchase of theI building, press relations, staff issues such as pension and compensation, and fine tuning the 1987 Bank reorganization. The files also include a copy of a lecture delivered by Ibrahim F.I. Shihata, Vice President and General Counsel, in reference to the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) and the legal treatment of foreign investment. Some files contain material dating from the Clausen presidency.

This is one of the few series of records from the Conable Presidency whose content is principally the internal administration of the World Bank. As such, it provides insight into Conable's administrative style and the set of issues in which he was interested. This series does not contain files on the major reorganization that he undertook in 1987; it does, however, have substantive files on the subsequent fine tuning of the reorganization in late 1989.