Bretton Woods Update No.54 January/February 2007

Knowledge Bank-rupted: Evaluation says key World Bank research ‘not remotely reliable’

News|31 January 2007

An evaluation by a panel of self-described ‘academic superstars’ has cast doubt over the independence and reliability of World Bank research. read article...

Growth alone is not the answer: evaluation chides World Bank

News|31 January 2007

In early December the World Bank’s evaluation body released a report which found that the Bank’s growth strategies have not done enough to help the poor, and that the Bank has failed to sufficiently assess the distributional impacts of its policy recommendations. read article...

Developing countries say World Bank trade research “misleading”

News|31 January 2007

The World Bank has drawn criticism from developing countries, trade economists and NGOs over a paper on the poverty impacts of the use of 'special products' measures. read article...

World Bank reconstruction role in Timor-Leste creating problems

by Guteriano Nicolau S. Neves

Comment|31 January 2007

Guteriano Nicolau S. Neves of the La'o Hamutuk Institute in Dili argues for a critical appraisal of the World Bank's role in the reconstruction of Timor Leste. read article...

Reading from the script the IMF’s PSI invades Africa

News|31 January 2007

The decisions by Ghana and Tanzania to use the Policy Support Instrument (PSI) reflect the IMF’s success in convincing countries to accept conditionality without any financing, despite the evidence from Uganda and elsewhere that PSI conditions are numerous and will be enforced. read article...

The IMF programme cycle

Inside the inst|31 January 2007

The IMF has regular, systematic engagement with government representatives at many levels. Implementation of the IMF’s programme cycle varies from one country to the next, depending on the situation and need of the country in question. The nature of the programme cycle is highlighted by looking at the cases of Uruguay and Mozambique. read article...

IMF crisis prevention: running on the spot

News|31 January 2007

Nearly ten years on from the Asian financial crisis and the IMF has yet to find a workable solution to the need for a precautionary financing arrangement that helps middle-income countries prevent financial crisis. The IMF’s inability to articulate a plan to mitigate global economic risks will force countries to continue searching for ways to self-insure. read article...

Mortgaging Iraq’s oil wealth

News|31 January 2007

As a "key ingredient" of IMF lending and debt relief, Iraq's government has just presented a new draft petroleum law to its cabinet that could permit up to two-thirds of Iraq's known reserves to be exploited by multinational oil companies under contracts lasting for 20 years. read article...

Congo: mining, conflict and complicity

News|31 January 2007

A confidential World Bank memo dated September 2005 finds that three of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s biggest mining contracts were approved with “a complete lack of transparency”. read article...

Huge gaps in the World Bank's Gender Action Plan

by Elaine Zuckerman

Comment|31 January 2007

The World Bank's new Gender Action Plan (GAP), aptly named Gender equality as smart economics, is tightly framed in the Bank's economic policy framework. read article...

Recommended resources 2006

News|31 January 2007

Books, papers and electronic resources of note in 2006 which discuss the World Bank and IMF. read article...