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Briefings

Infrastructure

Analysis

Will the World Bank be a partner for a just energy transition in developing countries?

As renewable energy finance shifts from China to the World Bank, whether the Bank can be a partner for a just energy transition depends on three areas: strong environmental and social oversight, avoiding a new resource curse in minerals and debt relief during crises.

15 July 2025 | At Issue
Wind Farm in desert near Hurghada, Egypt. Photo: MaguedM/Shutterstock

Infrastructure

Analysis

New data reveal World Bank DPF ‘climate finance’ carries strong private sector bias, undermining a just transition

New BWP briefing finds the World Bank counted 70 per cent of energy-sector reforms in Development Policy Financing as having 'climate co-benefits' between 2018-2023 - but most of these promoted a private-led energy transition.

9 June 2025 | Briefings
The World Bank's interactive new Corporate Scorecard on display at the 2024 World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings in Washington DC. Credit: Paul Blake/ World Bank.

Accountability

Analysis

Missing in action: accountability is noticeably absent from the World Bank Group’s new Corporate Scorecard

The Corporate Scorecard’s accountability gap is symptomatic of a broader failure on the part of the WBG to fully internalise, integrate and learn from the work of its accountability mechanisms.

12 December 2024 | At Issue
President of the Republic, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, during the opening of the Joint Session of the G20 Sherpa and Finance Trails, at the Itamaraty Palace. Brasília - DF.

Finance

Analysis

The lost call for international financial architecture reform in the G20

At the 80th anniversary of the World Bank and IMF, global civil society must maintain pressure on the Brazilian and South African G20 presidencies to ensure the forth Financing for Development Conference in 2025 results in urgently required international financial architecture reform.

16 October 2024 | At Issue

Finance

Analysis

Sustainable development requires sustainable finance: why local currency financing is part of the solution

Multilateral development banks can reduce their dependence on hard currency lending and make local currency financing a central element of their developmental mandate.

16 October 2024 | At Issue
Lethaba Power Station outside Sasolburg in the Free State, 2007. Credit: John Hogg / World Bank

Environment

Analysis

Year one of World Bank Paris Agreement alignment in the energy sector: ‘green conditionality’ dwarfs green investments

New BWP research finds the Word Bank's approach to Paris alignment is being used to a significant extent to impose ‘green conditionalities' on borrowing countries, especially in the Global South.

1 October 2024 | Briefings
Civil society representatives participate in townhall during the World Bank Annual Meetings in Marrakech, October 2023. Credit: World Bank / Flickr

Accountability

Analysis

Is the World Bank rolling back commitments to citizen engagement, again?

Understanding the Bank’s chequered history with public, community and civil society participation is key for understanding what is at stake and what to do next.

3 July 2024 | At Issue
Flags at the 2023 World Bank Annual Meetings, Marrakech, Morocco. Credit: World Bank / Franz Mahr

IFI governance

Analysis

A way out for IMF reform

New paper analyses the IMF 16th Quota Review and identifies key governance reforms feasible in the current economic and geopolitical context.

3 June 2024 | Briefings
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Other news

Gender

Analysis

The IMF and Gender Equality: Operationalising Change

This briefing raises critical questions on the latest developments in the IMF’s approach to gender.

10 February 2019 | Briefings

Accountability

Analysis

Bretton Woods Project submission on the DFID White Paper

In a submission the the DFID white paper consultation, we set out the significant change needed at the World Bank and IMF to bring them into line both with international norms and with UK policy, in order to improve their contribution to sustainable development. In this submission we outline changes needed in: IFI governance; IFI conditionality policies; IFI policies related to aid effectiveness; IFI policy on climate change; private-sector finance; and the financial sector's impact on devel

11 May 2009 | Briefings

IFI governance

Analysis

G-7, civil society press for IMF, World Bank transparency reforms

The World Bank and the IMF have responded to complaints about their lack of transparency by issuing mountains of documentation and offering innumerable meetings and consultations. But critics are still not satisfied, pointing to the difficulty for people to find and interpret many of the documents produced, and to the opacity of the institutions’ key decision-making bodies.

29 May 2003 | Briefings

Conditionality

Analysis

Comments on ‘IMF Staff Note on Macroeconomic Programming for Poverty Reduction’

Civil society commentary on the 'IMF Staff Note on Macroeconomic Programming for Poverty Reduction'

25 May 2003 | Briefings

Conditionality

Analysis

Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs): A Rough Guide

The aim of this short briefing is to provide information to a non-specialist audience on some key aspects of PRSPs.

9 April 2003 | Briefings

IFI governance

Analysis

Window of opportunity on IFI governance

Discussion of the key issues to be raised when the Development Committee discusses reforms to the governance structure of the IFIs at the Spring Meetings this April.

28 January 2003 | Briefings

Conditionality

Analysis

Blinding with Science or encouraging debate?

This report examines the powerful roles of the World Bank in determining the policies chosen by PRSP countries. It provides a critical assessment of the current moves to introduce Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA), and recommends taking further action to break the Bank’s near monopoly on development analysis and control of policy formulation process.

16 September 2002 | Briefings

Finance

Analysis

Taken for granted? US Proposals to Reform the World Bank’s IDA Examined

US debt campaigners are siding with the Bush administration against European leaders and other NGOs over a key source of finance for the world’s 79 poorest countries. Discussions on the pros and cons of providing grants instead of loans through IDA appear deadlocked (March 2002).

25 March 2002 | Briefings
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