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.
East Asia & Pacific
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Finance
News
Asia debates moving away from IMF and West
At a conference in Penang, Malaysia in August, officials, academic and members of civil society from the Asian region sought to chart a way towards greater regional cooperation that would insulate them from the IMF and financial crises.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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