Mr. Wolfowitz meets with young people during his first visit to Africa as World Bank President.
© The World Bank
This Annual Report records the achievements of the World Bank during the last year of the tenure of my distinguished predecessor, Jim Wolfensohn. It is an enormous responsibility to be entrusted with the leadership of this extraordinary institution, and I am grateful to Jim for having done so much to strengthen it over the past decade. While Jim had many accomplishments in the job, probably none is more important than his relentless focus on poverty reduction as a moral issue and as the central mission of the organization. Within this report of the World Bank's activities and financial standing, you will find sections on - Addressing Worldwide Poverty—A description of how the World Bank works to promote sustainable economic growth and channel needed services to poor people. This chapter also details the Bank's work toward achieving the Millennium Development Goals; its institutional and global efforts toward effective development; and its outreach to clients through Public Information Centers and on the Web.
- Regional Perspectives—A breakdown of the World Bank's lending and activities across the developing world, featuring highlights of projects in borrowing countries within each of the Bank's six regions.
- Summary of Fiscal Year Activities—A description of the Bank's development knowledge–sharing over the fiscal year; a discussion of the Bank's approach to lending in low-income and middle-income countries; the Bank's resources; and a summary of the Bank's lending by region, theme, and sector, such as environmental programs and infrastructure projects. This section also describes the Bank's partnerships with public, private, and civil society stakeholders.
- The fiscal 2005 financial statements, organizational information, income by region, new operations approved in fiscal 2005, and various lending data are included on a CD inserted inside the back cover of this report.
While much has been accomplished by this institution and its development partners, much remains to be done. The G-8 Summit at Gleneagles at the beginning of this new fiscal year has brought a welcome focus on the challenges of global development, particularly in Africa. It has also reaffirmed the central role of the World Bank in so much of that work and has given us even more to do.
As we move forward, we need to keep a balance among the different development priorities. The first priority must be to pay special attention to the needs of the poorest people in the poorest countries in the world. At the same time, the World Bank still has an important role to play with the rapidly growing developing countries, the so-called “middle-income” countries that nevertheless still have hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty. Finally, as a multilateral development institution, the World Bank is uniquely positioned to help the world address some of the concerns of the “global commons,” such as the development of sustainable energy and the alleviation of global health crises. In all of this work, the Bank is blessed with an exceptionally dedicated and qualified professional staff. It is an honor and a privilege to work with them on a daily basis. 
Paul Wolfowitz © 2005 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/The World Bank |
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