The World Bank and the Netherlands

The Netherlands takes part in the decision making in the World Bank

The World Bank is run like a cooperative, with our member countries as shareholders. Each shareholder’s government is represented on the Board of Governors. Generally, these governors are government ministers, such as Ministers of Finance or Ministers of Development. The Netherlands is represented on the Board of Governors by the Minister of Finance, Mr. Wouter Bos. The Netherlands’ Alternate Governor to the World Bank is the Minister for Development Cooperation, Mr. Bert Koenders. 

Because these governors meet only once a year to decide on key actions such as admitting new members or changing the authorized capital stocks, they delegate responsibility for overseeing the day-to-day business of the institutions to their designated representatives on the World Bank's Executive Board. The Executive Board is made up of 24 Executive Directors representing the 185 member countries of the World Bank. To learn more about the composition of the Executive Board, click here.

The Executive Director reside in Washington and normally meet twice a week to oversee our business, including approving loans and guarantees; new policies; the administrative budget; country support strategies; and borrowing and financial decisions. To see the work program of the Board, click here.

The Netherlands shares its Board representation with nine other countries: Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Georgia, Israel, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova,  Romania, and Ukraine. The group is led by Executive Director Mr. Ruud Treffers from the Netherlands, who enjoys the support of an Alternate Executive Director and a team of advisors from the member countries in the group.