The information and financial power of the World Bank

Abstract

Like military might and financial resources – the conventional forms of political influence – information is an important source of influence in international relations. International organisations disseminate vast amounts of information, which shape how social problems are perceived and addressed. The World Bank maintains two forms of power that reinforce one another:, information power and financial power, which is evident in the representations of HIV/AIDS implicit in Bank-lending requirements and project designs. This article contributes to the burgeoning literature on World Bank knowledge production by examining how information power is cultivated by the World Bank through collaboration with sister UN agencies and sustained by its established financial power. Production of knowledge by the World Bank involves UN collaboration with the use of HIV/AIDS focal points (‘go-to’ people for information, who communicate with one another and read the same publications) and external peer review of World Bank documents. As a result, information is consistent across international institutions and simultaneously expansive, as they adhere to individual UN agency mandates while also borrowing from one another. Country actors will become accustomed to international information, in interactions with any one of the international institutions and with each other, as well as by adhering to World Bank lending requirements and participating in World Bank projects.