The update also noted, “Recently, budget constraints have been driving decisions towards consolidating resources into fewer, but larger, projects.” It said the average size of bank-assisted projects in fiscal 2011 was $70 million, double the average in 2008.

As the bank’s 2014 fiscal year begins, it continues to assist major projects. The bank’s executive board on July 25 approved a $205-million loan to Ecuador's Municipality of Quito to help finance a $1.5-billion transit line. The bank says it is the first such project in that country. The line will extend for 23 kilometers, including 22 km of subway with 15 stations.

Peter Bosshard, policy director with International Rivers, a Berkeley, Calif.-based advocacy group, says, “Infrastructure is obviously very important for economic and social development, and we’re not opposed to the World Bank’s role in this. But we think the World Bank should focus on a role which directly reduces poverty, which in the energy-and-water sector, for example, means they should support ... distributed renewable-energy projects.” Such projects “are much more effective at reducing poverty in rural areas” than are big, centralized regional projects, Bosshard adds.

The World Bank Group includes the International Bank for Reconstruction for Development (IBRD), which provides aid to “middle-income” countries; the International Development Association, which provides grants and interest-free loans to poor countries; the International Finance Corp., which makes investments and provides loans and other assistance to companies in developing countries; and the Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency, which provides political risk insurance.

IBRD aid declined in 2013; the other three agencies posted increases.