The World Bank in the post-crisis landscape: Stasis and change after the post-Washington Consensus

Since the second half of the 2000s, the post- Washington Consensus world has witnessed a round of crises of systemic proportions (food, fuel, fi nancial), which have prompted the World Bank (WB) to undertake reforms at multiple levels (governance, policies/ programmes, organizational). In some cases, these changes have been the continuation of ongoing processes. In other, they have responded to, and have been subsequently influenced by, the challenges posed by those exogenous shocks. While positive results have been achieved in some areas, critics have argued that the World Bank has lost grip on Global Economic Governance (GEG) (Gilbert et al 1999 ; Kapur 2015). Based on a theoretically informed review of grey literature, this chapter provides a structured framework to discuss these contentions. The chapter builds on previous and ongoing research on WB’s reforms (Baroncelli 2011, 2013, 2018) conceptualizing policy and institutional changes in light of the 2008– 2010 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s voice and participation reform, arguing that stasis in the Bank’s constituent politics (i.e. the absence of a major redistribution in shareholding rights) was instrumental to preserving the role of traditional donors while at the same time increasing the power of some Emerging Market Economies (EMEs) without touching the delicate Board equilibrium between developing and developed countries. The article also discusses post- 2008 changes in lending, policy and programme practices of the whole World Bank Group (WBG), arguing that these have occurred along multiple mechanisms, with the organization’s learning from past experiences, and adapting with remarkable speed to evolutions in the external environment.