Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1946 - 1971 (predominant 1969 - 1971) (Creation)
Level of description
Series
Extent and medium
27.45 linear feet of textual records
Context area
Name of creator
Repository
Archival history
Records related to the Bank's liaison function were maintained in the Central Files recordkeeping system where they were arranged into the Bank-wide classification schemes. To create space for the increasing volume of records in Central Files, the Records Management Section sent the pre-1966 files to a records center close to the Bank premises in 1969. With the formal opening of the Archives repository in 1980, the Records Management Section began to transfer identified archival records to the Archives.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
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.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
During the period between 1969 and 1971, records relating to all Bank functions and organizational units maintained in the newly renamed Central Files were combined into one large series. Furthermore, when Central Files was renamed Bank Administration and Policy Records Station (BAP) the classification scheme changed again and a grouping of records were classified as "Alphabetical files" for the duration that BAP operated, from 1972 to 1974. The whole of the records were reviewed during archival arrangement and the grouping of "liaison" files from Central Files, as well as the "General A-Z" alphabetical series from BAP reflecting external liaison activities are now arranged as part of this series.
Files are arranged alphabetically, mostly by name of organization, and some by subject.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Records are subject to the World Bank Policy on Access to Information. Records relating to the International Finance Corporation are subject to the IFC Access to Information Policy.
Conditions governing reproduction
Records are subject to the Copyright Policy of the World Bank Group. Records relating to the International Finance Corporation are subject to the Copyright Policy of IFC.
Language of material
- English
- French
- Spanish
- German
Script of material
Language and script notes
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Notes area
Alternative identifier(s)
Access points
Subject access points
Place access points
Name access points
Genre access points
Description control area
Description identifier
Institution identifier
Rules and/or conventions used
Internal World Bank Group Archives rules
Disclosure status
Level of detail
Dates of creation revision deletion
18 April 2020, 03 March 2021