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).
Briefings
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.
Environment
Analysis
Foreclosing the future
Drawing on case studies, reports and evaluations, Bruce Rich paints a picture of a Bank still inflicting suffering on vulnerable populations, and calls on Bank president Jim Yong Kim to show real leadership so that the Bank can learn from experience rather than flee from it.
IFI governance
Analysis
Memorandum to the International Development Committee
In written evidence submitted to the UK parliament's International Development Committee, we argue that further reform of the World Bank is needed.