The ongoing global economic crisis threatens one and a half billion people who live in poverty. An effective World Bank is critical to reducing global poverty, but can it effectively tackle the challenge? In the first half of the 2000s, two Bank researchers sought to increase transparency and accountability within an institution mired in bureaucracy and secrecy. What unfolds is a dramatic story of how the World Bank really operates, the power it has to change peoples lives and how it can be successful in the current crisis. This book documents Shaman s experiences inside the World Bank. In 1999, along with his colleague David Wheeler, Shaman launched B-Span, an internet-based station that boadcast Bank discussions and deliberations to the world, including the many Third World finance ministries so desperate for humanitarian aid. By 2004, B-Span was drawing more than 200, 000 visitors annually. Its e-mail community of 18, 000 worldwide was the second-largest in the Bank. Who enjoyed B-Spans success and for whom was it a thorn in the side: these are the questions that drove Shaman to author The World Bank Unveiled.