Substantial efforts have been made since the close of World War II to transfer resources directly from the richer to the poorer countries in order to foster economic development. There have been multilateral lending agencies such as the International Bank for Eeconstruction and Development, the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Development Association, the new Asian Development Bank, and the United Nations’ Special Fund; bilateral American programs such as the lending and granting activities of the Export-Import Bank and the various AID programs; bilateral foreign programs such as the French and British loan and grant programs to their respective former colonial territories (and the few which remain under formal political tutelage), the Japanese loan and grant programs in the form of reparations and successor programs, the German loan program (largely in the form of short to mediumterm export credits); and loose co-ordinating or aid-policy discussion centers such as the Colombo Plan and the Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.