East Asia & Pacific

Environment

News

Undermining development? IFIs' role in extractive industries in disarray

Ongoing mining projects’ impacts on rights, gender and the environment suggest a new approach to the sector is needed, as the IMF and World Bank dole out contradictory advice on mining revenues.

30 September 2010

Rights

News

Is IFC palm oil investment a foregone conclusion?

The World Bank is currently undertaking a major review of its controversial engagement in palm oil production, but critics warn that consultation has been inadequate and that the Bank seems to have already decided to continue investment in the sector.

18 June 2010

Social services

News

IFC finances China investment in Africa

In April, the International Financial Corporation (IFC), the World Bank’s private sector arm, agreed to finance Chinese investment in a Tanzanian commercial complex in Dar es Salaam.

18 June 2010

Environment

News

Palm oil plantation perpetuates poverty

A study by NGO Rainforest Action Network of a World Bank-funded oil palm plantation in Papua New Guinea reports violations of Bank performance standards by thrice funding the palm oil plantations of agribusiness giant Cargill with no record of a consultation process.

20 November 2009

Conditionality

News

IFIs and Zimbabwe

The allocation of special drawing rights to Zimbabwe have stirred controversy about whether the country should use these to bolster its flagging public finances, while the fragile coalition government struggles with an external debt burden projected by the IMF to hit almost $7 billion by the end of the year.

22 September 2009

Accountability

News

Breaking the chains?

Violations of the IFC's performance standards in a palm oil project in Indonesia could have far reaching effects, drawing attention to the IFC's responsibility for the impact of whole supply chains as a review of their social and environmental standards gets under way.

22 September 2009

Infrastructure

News

Controversy over REDD credits

An article in the Economist highlights that no market has been formalised for trading carbon credits generated by programmes for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD)

10 July 2009

IFI governance

News

World Bank pays top dollar in East Timor

In May, the World Bank was forced to defend the salaries paid to its consultants in East Timor after they were leaked to the press. The salaries, paid by the Bank and donors, ranged from $100,000 to more than $500,000 in a country where half the population live below the poverty line.

10 July 2009

Knowledge

News

World Bank and poverty debates (II): Poverty reduction claims vindicated?

Two new World Bank working papers have rekindled the debate over how to count the poor, with the Bank asserting that even more people have been brought out of poverty in China than had previously been estimated.

17 June 2008

Conditionality

News

Anyone with experience taxing sin?

The Philippine finance ministry asked for technical assistance from the both the IMF and the World Bank on the design of sin taxes.

1 April 2008

Environment

News

Leaky logic: dams in three countries questioned

Recent reports have raised new questions about the impacts of World Bank-funded dams in Uganda and Laos, while in Mozambique the World Bank will likely be approached to fund another controversial project likely to be spearheaded by China

1 April 2008