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International Bank for Reconstruction and DevelopmentThe bank also operates the Economic Development Institute, which offers training in economic development for officials of member countries. Another development institution is the International Finance Corporation (IFC; est. 1956), which invests in private enterprises without government guarantee. The IFC has 181 member nations. The bank organized the International Development Association (IDA; 1960) to extend credit on easier terms, mainly to developing countries. The IDA has 167 member nations. Members of the IFC and IDA must be members of the IBRD. Criticism that the IBRD-financed projects were environmentally destructive led the bank to establish an environmental fund (1990) providing low-interest loans for developing countries. Developing nations have complained that the IBRD imposes the free-market system on them, thereby discouraging planning, nationalization, and public investment.
See the World Bank's publication, World Bank Operations: Sectoral Programs and Policies (1972); E. S. Mason and R. E. Asher, The World Bank since Bretton Woods (1973); C. Payer, The World Bank: A Critical Analysis (1982); S. Please, The Hobbled Giant: Essays on the World Bank (1984).
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