Today the Bank contains five closely related institutions: the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), the International Development Association (IDA), the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), and is made up of 191 member nations. Seven of which, including Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, or the G7, hold the majority of its power. .
Though the Bank has done much in the way of positive development efforts, it has also been highly criticized for funding ill conceived projects, especially those that had negative environmental impacts. In 1978, the president of the World Bank, Robert McNamara, defined absolute poverty as "a condition of life so limited by malnutrition, illiteracy, disease, squalid surroundings, high infant mortality, and low life expectancy as to be beneath any reasonable definition of human decency (Durning, 7)." The World Bank generally works to help the populations that fall into these horrid categories, though the results are not always positive. What is recognized as the international income poverty level varies between $50 and $500 a year, depending on prices, access to resources, and availability of public services (Durning, 9). The global division of classes is highly skewed, and the poverty rate not only not falling, but actually increasing since the eighties (Durning, 21). In trying to aid these struggling nations, institutions such as the World Bank tend to end up perturbing these negative situations. The "Global Poverty Trap" is evident on three levels: local, national, and global (Durning, 24). Nationally, governments keep the lower classes down because of what are misnomered progressive tax laws. Developed to help the poor keep their money, they actually discriminate against those who cannot afford to safekeep their funds in foreign institutions, evading national taxes.
