Given their objective of combating poverty throughout the world, France and the World Bank Group are working together to devise development policies that involve a broad range of problem areas, such as conflict prevention, food security, climate change, infrastructure, governance, health, or education, so as to enable millions of individuals in the poorest countries to be vaccinated, to move from place to place on serviceable and secure routes, to have sources of safe drinking water, and to have access to public services. The expertise of the World Bank Group, its knowledge of and capacity for working in all sectors and in all countries, contribute to achieving sustainable human, economic, and social development objectives throughout the world.
France became a member of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) on Dec. 27, 1945. On May 9, 1947, it was the recipient of the first IBRD loan, in the amount of $250 million, for the reconstruction of infrastructure that had been devastated by the Second World War. It is now a member of all five institutions making up the World Bank Group.
