This briefing notes that recent reforms to the IMF and World Bank governance and the establishment of new Southern-led IFIs are symbolically important, however, they are thus far not a rupture with the Western-dominated international financial architecture.
Briefings
Gender
Analysis
IMF on gender and income inequality: from research to implementation
New IMF staff discussion note links gender and economic equality, but will this research influence IMF policy?
Trade
Analysis
Corporate bias at the World Bank Group
This briefing finds significant bias in favour of corporations and commercial interests in the main venue for settlement of legal cases brought by corporations against governments: the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
Finance
Analysis
UN Financing for Development: the Fund and Bank's role & influence
This briefing analyses the role of the Bank and Fund in the UN Financing for Development negotiations.
IFI governance
Analysis
Impasse at the IMF
This briefing shows that multilateral governance is at risk if long-overdue IMF quota and board reforms are not ratified.
Finance
Analysis
The World Bank: In the vanguard of an infrastructure boom
This briefing analyses the "biggest investment boom in human history", examining elements of a new public-private partnership focused infrastructure investment model, including the role of the World Bank Group.
Environment
Analysis
Multilateral Development Banks’ unburnable carbon
Bretton Woods Project briefing on MDBs' fossil fuel investments and exposure to the carbon bubble
Conditionality
Commentary
Conditionally yours
New analysis reveals the IMF’s increasing use of controversial conditions attached to loans.
Land
Analysis
Corporatising agriculture
World Bank’s Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture rankings are unlikely to benefit the world’s smallholder farmers, but could instead facilitate corporate land grabs.
Finance
Analysis
BRICS Bank: New bottle, how’s the wine?
Last year BRICS' leaders agreed to launch a BRICS development bank. Whether this is considered positive depends in part what questions are being asked. Sameer Dossani of ActionAid International highlights the flaws in the World Bank and IMF, analyses whether a BRICS Bank could be different from these institutions and proposes what it should do and what it should look like.
Knowledge
Analysis
IMF & gender: a long way to go
This briefing analyses the recently published IMF discussion note Women, work and the economy and draws some positive conclusions from its recommendations, whilst pointing to additional measures that the IMF can take to promote gender equity.
Private Sector
Analysis
ICSID and Latin America
Latin American states are actively exploring alternative mechanisms to the ICSID state-investor dispute mechanism which they claim has investor bias.
Featured briefings
16 October 2024
The Bretton Woods Observer: Autumn 2024
16 October 2024
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
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.