181). Its central mission was to ensure a stable international monetary system to promote trade and growth. At the start, there was a membership of 29 countries, but it has now become almost universal with 184 members (Milner 2005, p.9). After the collapse of the Bretton Woods fixed exchanged system, the IMF's role changed; it began to deal more with developing countries. The IMF provided long and short-term loans at below market interest rates for countries in all sorts of economic difficulty (Milner 2005, p.9). Over time, promoting economic growth as well as resolving specific crises became the IMF's mission. These changes ultimately made the IMF very similar to the World Bank. .
Like the IMF, the World Bank was also formed after WWII and it concentrated primarily on reconstruction and development; in 1960, the Bank moved further toward economic development programs due to the creation of the International Development Association (IDA) (Peet 2003, p.7). There have been many countries over the years that have received both IMF and World Bank loans and often simultaneously. Similar to foreign aid, the World Bank also gives interest-free loans and grants to the poorest developing countries. A lot of the aid has been used in Africa; in 2003, 51% of it went to Sub-Saharan Africa (Peet 2003, p.7). .
Despite the intention of the IMF and the World Bank to facilitate economic development for developing countries, by examining the policies that both institutions impose, it is evident that these policies have only negatively impacted the economies of developing countries. Over the past few decades, the IMF and the World Bank have steadily gained the power and influence, becoming key players in determining which countries will receive loans. It is important to note that these loans are attached to the IMF's conditionality, which binds the lending country on a set of policies (Ranis et al. 2006, p. 53).