This pilot study - the first to analyze the World Bank’s lending policy in the Second United Nations Development Decade - concentrates on the Bank’s shift in emphasis from traditional infrastructure projects to “new style” projects, especially in the area of rural development, and on the resulting changes in lending criteria in the 1970s. Basing her conclusions on two years of independent research and access to confidential materials, Dr. Hurni evaluates the World Bank’s work; gives a good overall view of current development problems - including implementation of the “growth with equity” strategy - and their possible solutions; shows the effects of the new development goals in borrower and creditor countries, as well as on the institutional decision-making process; and offers recommendations for improvement of the Bank’s evaluation methodology and operational structures. She presents a clear picture of the positive and negative aspects of the World Bank as a multilateral investment model and shows its bridge-building function in the great North-South controversy.