A central mandate of the UN is the promotion of higher standards of living, full employment, and conditions of economic and social progress and development. As much as 70 per cent of the work of the UN system is devoted to accomplishing this mandate. The Social Sciences Library at Penn State has a large collection of United Nations materials relating to all of its activities. These are available on 2nd Floor Paterno Library.

Thirty member countries produce two-thirds of the world's goods and services. This organization exists to foster prosperity and fight poverty through economic growth, financial stability, trade and investment, technology, innovation, entrepreneurship, and development co-operation.

The ILO creates international labor standards, provides technical cooperation services, and publishes its own research on social and labor matters in order to promote decent living standards, satisfactory conditions of work and pay, and adequate employment opportunities.

The IMF is an international organization of 183 member countries, established to promote international monetary cooperation, exchange stability, and orderly exchange arrangements; to foster economic growth and high levels of employment; and to provide temporary financial assistance to countries to help ease balance of payments adjustment.

The World Bank is the world's largest source of development assistance, providing nearly $16 billion in loans annually to its client countries. It uses its resources to help each developing country onto a path of stable, sustainable, and equitable growth in the fight against poverty. Search the Development Gateway for country portals and for World Bank projects by topic or location. Also search the World Bank e-Library for access to World Bank publications and Policy Research Working Papers.