MSc Africa and International Development

This paper looks at the World Bank’s anti-corruption agenda and critiques it in two ways. It first looks at the limitations within the organization of the World Bank itself: its apolitical nature, lending culture and its ignorance of the role it has played and continues to play in perpetuating corruption. It then looks at three recommended reforms that the World Bank encourages as vehicles to stamp out corruption: privatization, empowering civil society and good governance. By analyzing the World Bank as an organization and recognizing its limitations in addressing corruption within the three reforms that will be exemplified, this essay argues that the World Bank remains more concerned with pushing its own neo-liberal agenda than taking a hard stance on deep-rooted corruption and has therefore failed to make significant progress on the fight against corruption