Bretton Woods Project - Critical voices on the World Bank and IMF

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IBRD—International Bank for Reconstruction and Development

Established in 1944 and more commonly known as the World Bank, the IBRD provides under three main headings: Straqtegy and coordination services, financial services including loans and development assistance to middle and low-income countries with a stated aim of reducing poverty, and knowldge services. Loans generally have a five-year grace period and must be repaid over a period of 15-20 years. In 2008 the IBRD commited a total of $ 13.5 billion in loans, in contrast to $13.6 billon in 2005, destined for a large range of projects. The Bank obtains some of its funds through the sale of bonds on international financial market while most of its income comes from interest on loans made from its own capital. This capital consists of reserves built up over the years as well as money paid in by its 184 member countries. While not a profit maximizing organisation, the IBRD has earned net income every year since 1948. read more background...

Items 1 to 10 of 103

All you need to know: World Bank-IMF spring meetings 2013

News|Bretton Woods Project|22 April 2013|url

The 2013 spring meetings of the World Bank and IMF will take place from 18 to 20 April in Washington, DC. You will be able find links below to analysis of the communiqués as well as notes of some of the civil society and official meetings, as they become available. read article...

The UK's role in the World Bank and IMF Department for International Development and HM Treasury

Briefing|Bretton Woods Project|13 March 2013|url

This page outlines the structure of the UK government's interaction with the World Bank and the IMF. It provides contact information for the appropriate staff at the Department for International Development and HM Treasury who deal with the Bretton Woods institutions read article...

World Bank accused of racial discrimination

News|Bretton Woods Project|6 December 2012|update 83|url

An online petition launched by an international group of current and former Bank staffers, justice for blacks, calls upon Human Rights Watch, the Bank’s governing board and the US government to investigate the Bank’s flagrant inability to uphold its policy of “zero-tolerance policy for discrimination”. read article...

World Bank-IMF annual meetings 2012

News|Bretton Woods Project|16 October 2012|url

Analysis, news, and about the events inside and around the World Bank/IMF annual meetings 2012. This page is being updated regularly. read article...

World Bank lending facilities

Inside the inst|Alexandra Peck|3 October 2012|update 82|url

The World Bank's investment lending (ILs) have been joined in recent years by new lending instruments, whilst IL itself faces an overhaul, as the Bank's operational policies come under review and pilots for the use of 'country systems' mature. The Bank is presently using four lending instruments: investment lending, development policy lending (DPL), Program-for-Results, and the World Bank guarantee program. read article...

IFI leaders talk jobs, but staff push labour deregulation

News|Alexandra Peck|3 July 2012|update 81|url

International financial institutions increasingly recognise the negative impacts of austerity on labour markets, however, a disjuncture remains between their public pronouncements and their policies and practice. read article...

Accountability squandered? World Bank should wait for justice in Cambodia

Comment|Natalie Bugalski and David Pred |22 June 2012|update 81|url

Despite a 2011 victory in Cambodia, where a mass eviction in the centre of Phnom Penh was halted and remaining affected families finally gained legal title to the land they had been wrongly denied under a World Bank project, recent arrests have put justice in jeopardy and led to calls for a continued lending freeze by the Bank. read article...

World Bank-IMF spring meetings 2012

News|Bretton Woods Project|20 April 2012|url

Analysis of the 2012 World Bank and IMF spring meetings and related events, including the selection of new World Bank president Jim Yong Kim. read article...

IEG finds World Bank not well adapted to crisis lending

News|Bretton Woods Project|5 April 2012|update 80|url

The final report of the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group's (IEG, the Bank's arms-length evaluation unit) assessment of the Bank's response to the 2008/09 global economic crisis confirms that Bank measures followed pre-crisis patterns and often failed to reach those most affected, leaving the Bank vulnerable to future crises. read article...

US to IFIs: whistleblowers welcome

News|Bretton Woods Project|5 April 2012|url

A provision recently passed by the US Congress requires the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD, the World Bank's middle-income country arm), the African Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank to make "substantial progress" towards implementing "best practices for the protection of whistleblowers from retaliation" before the US contributes more funding to their capital base. read article...

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The UK's role in the World Bank and IMF: Department for International Development and HM Treasury  13 March 2013

A faulty model?: What the Green Climate Fund can learn from the Climate Investment Funds  21 June 2011

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