Series contains records documenting the origins and first year of operation of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) that were maintained by Central Files and created primarily by the Development Services Department (DSD) between 1969 and 1971. A single item dated 1968 is a copy of the by-laws of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. Co-sponsored by the World Bank Group, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), CGIAR was established in May 1971 as an informal association of countries, international development agencies, and private foundations to support a network of international agricultural research centers.

Records in this series consist mostly of correspondence between Bank staff assigned responsibility for implementing proposals for CGIAR including DSD Director Richard H. Demuth and Arie Kruithoff and their counterparts at the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the individual research institutes to be financed through CGIAR, and senior managers of the Bank principally Warren C. Baum and Vice President, Operations J. Burke Knapp. A smaller volume of correspondence is from L.J.C. Evans of the Bank's Agriculture Projects Department, concerning agricultural research summary of meetings.

Other records included in the series are summaries of meetings of agricultural research institutes including the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, speeches, and study papers and reports produced by the initial agricultural research institutes funded by CGIAR including annual and financial reports. The series also consists of a set of documents on the first meeting of the CGIAR held in January 1971.

The series consists of records related to the management of IBRD, IFC, and IDA funds that were maintained in the Central Files system. The records were predominantly created between 1946 and 1977, except for a single file dating to 1978. Records originated primarily in the Treasurer's Department and its divisions as well as the Office of the Controller that was initially established in the Administration Department in 1948. Records of the Office of the President and Office of the Vice President were also centralized until 1968 and there is some correspondence originating mainly from Presidents John McCloy, Eugene R. Black, and George D. Woods. The correspondence includes internal memoranda mostly between the Bank treasurer or controller and the president or vice president, as well as letters exchanged between these Bank offices and government and corporate bank officials. The records in this series cover the development and maintenance of accounts and accounting systems, reporting of financial information, management of investments, and advancement of overall financial policy of the World Bank Group. This series does not contain records of the World Bank units responsible for donor-based resource mobilization functions related to cofinancing and trust funds or program and budgeting.

The general subject files (1946 - 1974) comprising the series contain mostly internal memoranda to and from the treasurer and controller. Incoming and outgoing cables, draft and final Board of Executive Directors resolutions and reports, Financial Policy Committee reports, Advisory Council notes, data tables, Secretary's memorandum, and other records are also often found within the files. There are also files containing IBRD and IDA monthly financial statements (1946 - 1968) from the Treasurer's Department and a financial statement prepared by Price Waterhouse & Co. dated June 30, 1946 shortly after IBRD began operations. Bank press releases are also attached to some of the financial statements. Other financial statement files arein the form of memoranda regarding the translation, printing, and proofing of financial statements in other languages (1952 - 1969).

Also among the general subject files, capital stock records provide information about the Bank's earliest financial operations and policy decisions. These files contain mostly internal memoranda regarding various capital stock subscription issues such as calls for payment of subscriptions and delays in payment, enquiries about exchange rates, data regarding Bank and Fund member subscriptions and quotas, and procedures of payment with gold. Early records also relate to potential income of the Bank and establishment of the fiscal year. Memoranda is occasionally filed with: data tables such as a comparison of subscriptions or capital structure; excerpts of resolutions of Advisory Council or Board of Directors; draft circulars, some with handwritten annotations; final printed circulars and revised copies, such as the instruction to depositories on the establishment and maintenanceof accounts for IBRD; draft letter to government officials notifying of subscription payment written in June 1946 prior to the Bank's operations; draft and final first reports and second report (both dated May 1946) of the Committee on Capital appointed by the executive directors and chaired by Bank Treasurer Daniel Crena de Iongh; and the Committee on Interpretation 1946 report and note on interpretation of the Articles on Agreement.

Finance subject files also relate to general investment and pension fund investment management, also referred to as staff retirement plan (1948 - 1977), portfolio sales and participation (1972 - 1978), audits and appointment of auditors (1946 - 1974), and overdue service payments (1987). The investment files cover various matters including the development of policy and procedures, interpretation of the Articles of Agreement, and discussions and decisions about investment of Bank holdings in various countries, investment returns, the sale of gold, and audit of investments. Data tables occasionally filed with the memoranda detail schedules of investment securities, U.S. government bonds owned by IBRD, and other financial data.

A set of individual files for each IBRD account according to bank name (1946 - 1974) contains mostly correspondence relating to opening of accounts and policy regarding transactions. The earliest institutions represented in the files include the United States Federal Reserve Bank and American Security and Trust (from 1946), Bank for International Settlements (1947), Banque National Suisse (1948), Chase Manhattan Bank (1949).

IBRD general currency files (1946 - 1974) include correspondence and other material concerning local expenditure and local currency loans, devaluations of currencies on loans, convertibility, exchange rates and risks, repayment of non-dollar currency and supplying non-dollars under dollar loans, losses as a result of devaluation, maintenance of value, and Bank policy material on clauses in loan agreements and denomination. The series also contains currency files by country of origin (1951 - 1971), several which are thin in volume, and cover a variety of topics including currency proposals and problems, loan transactions, and revaluations. Correspondence is filed with financial data tables and forecast reports.

There is also correspondence and statements relating to time deposit investment accounts (1959 - 1972) held in various commercial banks. Files are arranged according to bank.

Records related to IFC finance include general accounts management arranged by bank (1956 - 1971), and time deposit files (1961 - 1971) also organized by bank name. Among the earliest account files (1956) are Federal Reserve Bank and American Security and Trust. Other files (1956 - 1971) relate to financial statements, investments, audits, forecast on income, interest on late payments, reserve against losses, stock options and equity holdings, consultants, and two files concerning borrowing (1969 - 1971).

IDA finance files contain correspondence and other records related to general accounts and opening of accounts by bank (1960 - 1977), several of which relate directly to transactions with the US Federal Reserve and depository statements (1960 - 1971). There are files related to financial statements (1961 - 1971) and related correspondence, time deposits (1960 - 1971), currencies (1960 - 1971), and audits (1961 - 1971). From 1972 to 1977 there are only files titled "Miscellaneous IDA" and a "general" file (1987) and these cover the various aforementioned subjects. There is also a small volume of records related to the fourth, fifth, and eighth IDA replenishments (1971 - 1977, 1987) originating mostly from the Controller and Legal Departments as well as the Office of the Vice President of Finance. Also included in the IDA files is a transcript of proceedings of the IDA meeting on criteria for country allocation of IDA resources, June 3, 1977.

Series consists of records related to the functions of the Board of Executive Directors of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), International Development Association (IDA), and International Finance Corporation (IFC) that were maintained in the Bank's centralized filing system since 1946, originally General Files, then Central Files. The centralized records originated primarily from Secretary's Department as well as the Office of the President. As described in the archival history section, Secretary's Department is the custodian of Board of Directors records and proceedings but distributed certain correspondence and related documents to the Central Files while maintaining its own official files.

Records in this series include general correspondence files (1947 - 1977) concerning IBRD composition of standing committees, statements of directors, board schedules, procedural issues, information on monthly reports, and routine administrative matters. Correspondence is occasionally filed with related Board reports. While the IDA general correspondence file (1960 - 1966) is sparse, the more substantive general correspondence files for IFC (1956 - 1967) contain draft and issued Board reports regarding country membership and rules of procedure, memoranda concerning routine announcements and amendments to rules of procedure, directors' membership, formation of the IFC Board, statements and meeting summary of the IFC Directors, and investment processes. The IFC general correspondence file also contains the Rules of Procedure and By-laws booklets (1956). Individual correspondence files (1947 - 1971) consist of internal memoranda, outgoing cables and letters, and original letters primarily to and from the Bank president, secretary, and government officials regarding appointments and resignations of directors and alternates, their travel, and other administrative issues. Some individual files occasionally include the director's biographical statement.

There are also cables, memoranda, and Board reports relating to elections (1950 - 1971) and salaries and expenses (1948 - 1971), the latter which includes the report of the Board of Governors Ad Hoc Committee to consider provisions of the Articles of Agreement and By-laws relating to duties and renumeration of executive directors (1949 - 1950).

The series also includes meeting correspondence (1950 - 1971), agenda for IBRD and IDA executive director meetings (1966 - 1974), minutes of some IBRD, IDA, and IFC executive director meetings (1966 - 1974) including IFC directors' 1956 first meetings, IBRD special meetings minutes (1964), summaries, and IBRD, IDA, and IFC resolutions (1967 - 1971).

The series also includes a small volume of records relating to: the establishment and proceedings of the Bank Committee on Directors' Administrative Matters (CODAM, 1967 - 1971); agreement and administration of the Bank-Fund Executive Directors' Library (1968 - 1971); establishment of the Joint Audit Committee of the Executive Directors (1969 - 1971); and revisions of the Operational Policy Manual including the section on aid coordination and well as the approach paper on aid coordination (1970 - 1971).

Series consists of records related to the formulation of policies, guidelines, standards, and advisory support for lending, economic sector work, and other operations of the International Bank for Reconstruction of Development (IBRD), International Finance Corporation (IFC), and International Development Association (IDA) that were maintained in the centralized files. Records date from 1946 to 1986. There are no records from 1987 in this series, likely because files were handed over to the functional departments following the closure of the NRIC in July 1987. The offices and non-regional departments whose records were centralized over time and are represented most prominently in this series include, but are not limited to: Office of the President and Vice President; Treasurer's Department; Office of the Controller; Research, later Economic Department (years of operation between 1946 - 1952); Technical Operations and divisions (1952 - 1965) and its successors Projects Department (1965 - 1972), Central Projects Staff (1972 - 1982), and Operations Policy Vice Presidency (1982 - 1986); Technical Assistance and Liaison Department (1951 - 1967) and successor, Development Services (1967 - 1973).

Records comprising the series include internal memoranda, incoming and outgoing letters, cables, copies of Board records and committee documents, legal document drafts, concept and strategy papers, external reports, summaries, minutes or excerpts of senior staff and other department or external meetings, and published articles and press clippings. Back-to-office reports and Terms of Reference are often in the form of internal memoranda.

Development and debt policy

A significant volume of records relate to general development and foreign aid policy, strategy, and activities for developing countries. Records cover the period 1947 to 1977 and contain internal memoranda and Bank-produced reports or comments on reports on development including the Tinbergen Report (1953 - 1958), Horowitz Proposal (1964 - 1968), Machado proposal (1963 - 1968), and an article by Hollis B. Chenery entitled "Effectiveness of Foreign Assistance". Also contains original letters sent to and from Presidents Woods and McNamara, and memoranda between the president, vice president, president's Economic Advisor Irving Friedman, with directors or advisors of Economic Department, Development Services, Area Departments, general counsel of the Legal Department, and IFC. There is correspondence regarding President Woods' proposal for a grand assize on development assistance and responses from government officials, and correspondence related to the Bank's support to the Commission on International Development (or Pearson Commission) formed in 1968 at President McNamara's request. There is also correspondence to and from McNamara and senior Bank staff following the Pearson Commission's findings as well as proceedings of the Bank's Committee of the Whole on Pearson Commission Recommendations. Other development topics covered are: development finance trends and outlook; Bank's role as aid coordinator; coordination of bilateral project financing; multilateral financing; Bank study of aid results; use of leverage in development aid; land reform; and the Brandt Commission (1976 - 1983) also known as the Independent Commission on International Development Issues. Development correspondence is often filed together with external reports, copies of Economic Committee papers, published articles and press clippings, and excerpts of senior staff meetings.

Series also includes correspondence, reports, and other documents relating to the Bank's policy on indebtedness (1947 - 1977), debt information compiled for the Annual Report, communication with regional development banks on joint debt, and the Foreign Bondholders Council (1946 - 1971).

IDA operational policy and procedures

The series contains a set of IDA general operational policy and procedure files (1960 - 1971) and files regarding credit regulation, creditworthiness, and Statements of Credits (1966 - 1968). General IDA policy files include reports from the Staff Loan Committee, Board of Directors meetings, IDA Financial Policy committee, and a draft of the Report of the Working Group on IDA policies by Benjamin B. King (1968). Other records concerning IDA policy and guidelines are found throughout this series filed according to the subject matter.

Lending and non-lending policy and procedures

A large volume of records comprising this series relate to IBRD, IFC, and IDA lending policy (1948 - 1986) including specific topics such as: loan regulations and agreements; loan administrative reports; procedures for handling loan applications; lending forecasts including Five-Year Program; structural adjustment lending; Special Project Preparation Facility; Third Window loans; cancellation of loans and credits; and consultative and negative pledge clauses in loan agreements. There are also files on colonial lending (1948 - 1952), effective date, determination of loan grace periods, and amortization payment and maturity.

The series also contains records related to the Bank's technical assistance function from 1946 to 1977 and includes material on the UN Technical Assistance Board, correspondence with technical research institutes and training centers, and quarterly reports.

Project policy and procedures

A sizable portion of records also relate to the development of standards and policy surrounding Bank projects (1946 - 1977) such as appraisal of proposed projects, preparation and costs of projects, supervision of Bank and IDA project loans, project monitoring and identification of problem projects, performance audit reports, and origin of supply particularly for civil works projects.

Also included are records related to the creation, development, and review of Bank Group-wide and divisional procurement and consultant policies (1947 - 1986). Procurement policy issues and advice cover topics such as: assistance to borrowers in procuring materials needed for a project; contract bidding; selection of consultants; sector project contracts; review visits and discussions with governments; and comments on Bank procurement guidelines.

Specific files regarding consultants and contractors selected for Bank projects include correspondence on bidding, bonds, contractual arrangements, and international industry federations. There are also contractor files for certain member countries as well as the 1956 Colquhoun consultancy report.

Mission policy and procedures

Mission files comprising the series (1947 - 1971) relate to the establishment, administration, and functions of economic and sector missions, project supervision missions, technical assistance missions and special missions undertaken primarily by the Area Departments and Projects Department. Correspondence containing mostly internal memoranda, details practices and procedures for the collection of data and reports, scheduling and staffing for missions, cooperation with United Nations other international organizations and financial support of missions, and country updates. Memoranda is occasionally attached to lists of missions, tables with comparative data, Economic Committee reports on missions, and excerpts of senior staff meetings. Also includes a 1947 report on European missions and description of proposed missions. There are a portion of files (1972 - 1974) containing cables and outgoing letters drafted by the Projects Department and its sectors, mostly pertaining to administrative arrangements for missions and meetings and occasionally mission follow up discussions.Also included are correspondence and reports from the Bank's resident offices and missions (1947 - 1968).

Operational committees, working groups, task forces, and meetings

Series also contains the centralized records related to the practices, procedures, composition, and functions of the Bank's committees, working groups, and task forces concerned with operations. Includes memoranda, agenda, minutes, or reports of the Loan Committee (1946 - 1971), Economic Committee (1953 - 1968), Statutory Loan Committee (1947 - 1968), Financial Policy Committee (1949 - 1967), Technical Assistance Committee (1961 - 1964), Committee on Development Projects and Prospects (1975 - 1977), Operational Policy Subcommittee (1982), Advisory Panel on Bank Operations (1966 - 1968) and Working Parties on Financial Aspects of Development Assistance (DAC, 1969 - 1971). The functions of the Technical Assistance Committee that was established in 1961 under the chairmanship of the director of Development Services to review proposals forBank/IDA technical assistance were taken over in 1964 by the Loan Committee. Loan Committee records document committee deliberations, function, structure of meetings, designation of officers, drafting of Operational Memoranda, and subjects for discussion presented by Bank staff. Among the committee records are also files related to senior staff meetings (1963 - 1968).

External aid coordination

The series also contains records concerning the development and implementation of policy and strategies for co-financing covering the period 1975 to 1986 including joint and parallel financing. Records also cover development aid coordination with bilateral and multilateral organizations, aid untying, and guidelines and procedures related to consortia and consultative aid groups sponsored by the Bank (1971 - 1980). Also contains correspondence and documents related to the Consultative Group on Food Production and Investment in Developing Countries (CGFPI, 1974 to 1977).

Arbitration policy and procedures

Arbitration records in the series (1960 - 1971) concern policy and practices for the settlement of differences between member country clients, consultants, contractors, and manufacturers involved in Bank projects. Included is correspondence sent and received primarily by IBRD general counsel and staff and occasionally from operations or sector departments. There is also material concerning the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes (SID), and the establishment of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) including summary of meeting proceedings (1964 - 1968).

Finance policy and procedures

Financial audit records in the centralized files were primarily created by Treasurer's Department, Office of the Controller, Technical Operations Department, its sector divisions, and successors and relate to external auditing of Bank and IDA borrowers accounts by independent and corporate auditors. Letters and cables to and from government officials, companies, and private banks provide information on balances of loans and loan details, and internal memoranda outlines countries with project loans and contains arrangements and reviews of accounting practices of industrial borrowers.

Records related to the Bank's policy on investment were created between 1950 - 1973 and covers the advancement and protection of private and foreign investments, guarantees, insurance, and the Symington Plan (1953 - 1957). There is also correspondence with international investment institutions and memoranda from Shirley E. Boskey, policy planning officer and senior policy planning advisor in the Development Services Department, concerning the Working Party on International Investment Guarantees.

Portfolio sales and participation records in the series (1947 - 1968) include memoranda to and from Legal and Treasurer's Departments and the Office of the President including President Black. There are also letters, cables, and other material related to the sales of bonds received under loan agreements and participation by outsiders in loans. Includes approvals for borrowing filed by country, certificates of investment, exchange transfers, and statements of borrowers' obligations. Also includes correspondence relating to the Ford Foundation participation (1956 - 1962), German purchasers, and transactions handled by the Bank's New York and Paris Offices.

Development banks and development finance companies

Several files in the series relate to development banks and development finance companies (1951 - 1978) including Bank Group meetings with regional development banks and development finance companies. Other records relate to IFC's appointment of directors to the boards of development banks and of finance companies in which IFC is a shareholder. There are also a few files regarding the Conference of Development Finance Companies (1965 - 1971).

Operations administration

Series contains records concerning Bank operations administration from as early as 1946 and departments' status of projects, reports to andfrom department heads, country assignments, schedules of operations, operational vice president meetings (1978 - 1986), operations evaluation system (1975 - 1977), and operations evaluation reports including the annual report (1978 - 1983). There are also records related to the preparation of Board reports and working papers such as Future Role of the Bank (1977), Possible Improvements in Techniques of Lending - A Study by the Staff of the World Bank (1970), and a review of Bank experience with proposals for the future (1969). Two general reports files (1975 - 1977) relate to the distribution, format, quality of various reports proposals and standards for the president's report, appraisal report, economic and sector reports, annual report, and drafting of confidentiality agreement of contractors regarding Bank records.

The series also includes correspondence and other records related to policies, practices, and preparation for Bank Group operational reports and statements including: Monthly Operational Summary of Bank and IDA projects (1955 - 1971); Semi-Monthly Operational Report to the Executive Directors on Bank and IDA Operations (1967 - 1971); IFC Monthly Report (1966 - 1968); Statement of Loans (1952 - 1976); Status of Loans (1954 - 1970); Statement of Credits (1969 - 1975); World Tables (1969 - 1976); Country Data and Economic Indicators, Country Economic Brief and Country Program Papers (1969 - 1985).

There is also material concerning the planning and preparation of the Bank's operational directives including the Operational Memorandum and Manual (1952- 1986), Central Projects Notes and Operational Policy Note (1981 - 1986) and Projects Department Director's Memoranda (1969 - 1971).

Fellowship and training files in this series (1969 - 1971) primarily originated in the Projects Department and its sectors, particularly the Education Sector, and contain mostly internal memoranda and cables related to: administrative arrangements of member country trainees for operational projects also known as manpower trainees; nominations of trainees; proposed training for Projects Department professional staff; trainee and fellowship recipient reports; and comments on a draft manual on an "overseas" training program.

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.

The fonds contains the records maintained as part of the World Bank Group's centralized files variously known as General Files (1946 - 1968), Central Files (1969 - 1971), the semi-centralized Bank Administration and Policy Records Stations (BAP, 1972 - 1974), Bank General Records Station and Administration and Policy Records Stations (BAPRS, 1975 - 1977) and Non-Regional Information Centers (NRIC, 1978 - 1987) with exceptions as described in the Arrangement field below. Records of the administrative unitsresponsible for the management of the General Files records center and its subsequent iterations are not included in this fonds except so far as these records were filed in Central Files. The date range of the Central Files is primarily from 1946 to 1986, however there are a small number of externally produced records dating from 1937 and the early 1940s as well as a single file dating 1987. The remainder of the 1987 files were likely handed over to the functional departments after the closure of the NRICin July 1987.

The departments whose records were centralized over time and represented most prominently in Central Files include (but are not limited to): Economics, Development Services, Technical Operations, Projects (and its sector divisions), and Administration.

Correspondence contained in the fonds includes letters, memoranda, cables, and other related records sent to and from the above departments and the Office of the President during the presidencies of Meyer, McCloy, Black and Woods. President records are otherwise nonexistent in the case of Meyer and are sparse for Woods, McCloy and Black in the Office of the President fonds. The Central Files also contains correspondence of the first Bank Vice Presidents which are fragmentary in the General Vice Presidents and Managing Directors fonds.

Records in this fonds document significant events and studies, administrative and organizational changes, governing bodies and committees, membership and obligations of countries, financial transactions, and the Bank's administrative and operating policies and processes including lending, projects, and development policy. The fonds comprises the general (non-regional) files on all topics not specific to a region or country as well as the membership, bond, and finance files relating to IBRD, IDA and IFC.

The general filing practice for correspondence between two offices within the Bank whose records were filed in Central Files was to save the copy of the document retained by the creating unit (often a yellow carbon copy) and to destroy the copy sent to the receiving unit, unless the receiving unit had annotated the document, in which case both copies were saved.

Series consists of records concerning the formulation of policies, guidelines and standards, and advisory support for lending as well as economic sector work of the International Bank for Reconstruction of Development (IBRD). These records were maintained in the centralized files from 1946 to 1987. The 1987 records in this series are very few. The remainder of 1987 files were likely handed over to the functional departments following the closure of the NRIC in July 1987. The offices and non-regional departments whose records were centralized over time and are represented most prominently in this series include (but are not limited to): Office of the President and Vice President (beginning 1946); Research, later Economic Department (1946 - 1952); Technical Operations and sector divisions (1952 - 1965) and its successors Projects Department (1965 -1972), Central Projects Staff (1972 - 1982), and Operations Policy Vice Presidency (1982 - 1986).

Records in the series predominantly cover the period 1946 to 1986, apart from a file on pulp and paper that contains a copy of an external report dated 1944. The 1987 records are limited to a single file concerning urban development. Records are mostly in the form of internal memoranda or incoming and outgoing letters that are sometimes filed with cables, project data reports, evaluation reports, commodities notes, study reports or concept papers written by staff or consultants, private sector proposals, external publications and reports from governments and agencies, press clippings, external articles, conference and meeting invitations, list of participants, and booklets. Draft and final case studies, back-to-office reports, terms of reference, and progress reports are often in the form of internal memoranda.

The series contains a substantial quantity of records concerning the Bank lending policy and guidelines as well as economic sector work in the form of projects and studies for operational sectors including (but not limited to): agriculture; education; industry; rural and urban development; housing; energy; ecology; environment; population and family planning; health and nutrition; trade; transportation; water supply and waste; public utilities; and public finance. Specific industries covered in the files are mining, forestry, construction, ports and shipping, tourism, and science and technology, among others.

Sector lending policy and guidelines files consists mostly of internal memoranda originating in the Economic Department (1946 - 1952) and its successors later under the vice president then senior vice president of operations including Central Projects, its sector departments, and Operations Policy Vice Presidency. Correspondents outside of the Bank include consulting firms, assorted United Nations agency officers, country and university officials, and private industry representatives. The records contain general policy formulation and discussion on the following subjects: project evaluation; studies to support consideration of Bank loans and terms of reference for the studies; comments on concept papers and on industry guidelines; Bank staff visits to the field and missions; project performance audit reports; unit activities and work program; participation in seminars, conferences or other events; and requests for technical information from international industry experts regarding pulp and paper management, seed processing machinery, animal breeding, and other specialized topics.

Also included in the series are several files, many originating from the Projects Advisory Staff and units, concerning procurement (1978 - 1986), consultants and consulting services (1980 - 1986), cofinancing (1983 -1986), and feasibility program files which concern project and sector studies of the Development Service Department (1960 - 1965). There is also a single file dated 1978 regarding the Consultative Group on Food Production and Investment in Development Countries (CGFPI), and three photographs depicting a World Bank display of publications and posters for an environment sector event in the 1970s.

Project and study files also include the Bank's research and policy analyses on numerous commodities as well as commodity prices stabilization, development aid, economic data and reporting, capital markets and capital mobilization, imports and exports, Bank financing, and other subjects. The commodities files include several on coffee which provide information about statistics on prices, production, distribution and export, project participation with the International Coffee Organization and ICO meetings in which the Bank participated as observers, and the International Coffee Agreement (1969 - 1971). Other commodities included among the files are oil, gold, metals, sugar, jute, livestock, and several others.