Comprehensive development framework

According to the World Bank, in virtually all successful assistance projects the country itself was the driving factor. The Bank therefore works to help governments lead and implement their own development strategies and thus take a stronger hand in their own future development. The strategy was initiated by the former president of the bank, James Wolfensohn. Since 1999, it has followed a set of philosophies known as the Comprehensive Development Framework. These philosophies state that:
Development strategies should be comprehensive and shaped by a long-term vision
Development goals and strategies should be “owned” by the country, based on local stakeholder participation in shaping them
Countries receiving assistance should lead the management and coordination of aid programs through stakeholder partnerships
Development performance should be evaluated through measurable results on the ground in order to adjust the strategy to outcomes and a changing world

Poverty reduction strategies

For the poorest developing countries in the world the bank’s assistance plans are based on poverty reduction strategies; by combining a cross-section of local groups with an extensive analysis of the country’s financial and economical situation the World Bank develops a strategy pertaining uniquely to the country in question. The government then identifies the country’s priorities and targets for the reduction of poverty, and the World Bank aligns its aid efforts correspondingly.

The bank supports certain kinds of poor people's organisations such as the Self-Employed Women's Union and Shack/Slum Dwellers International.
Forty-five countries pledged US dollers 25.1 billion in "aid for the world's poorest countries", aid that goes to the World Bank International Development Association (IDA) which distributes the gifts to eighty poorer countries. While wealthier nations sometimes fund their own aid projects, including those for diseases, and although IDA is the recipient of criticism, Robert B. Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, said when the gifts were announced on December 15, 2007, that IDA money "is the core funding that the poorest developing countries rely on".

Clean Technology Fund management

The World Bank has been assigned temporary management responsibility of the Clean Technology Fund (CTF), focused on making renewable energy cost-competitive with coal-fired power as quickly as possible, but this may not continue after UN's Copenhagen climate change conference in December, 2009, because of the Bank's continued investment in coal-fired power plant