Multilateral development banks can reduce their dependence on hard currency lending and make local currency financing a central element of their developmental mandate.
Analysis
Gender
Analysis
World Bank fails to incorporate key elements of new Gender Strategy in IDA21 policy package and Corporate Scorecard
Despite Bank’s new Gender Strategy’s positive offerings on human rights and the value of public services to women and girls, IDA21 replenishment and new Corporate Scorecard see women only as economic opportunity for the private finance push.
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.
Finance
Analysis
IMF board’s reluctance leaves Special Drawing Rights as an underused tool in Fund's toolbox
IMF board's lukewarm endorsement of SDR rechanneling through MDBs stands in stark contrast to continued calls from Global South governments for additional SDR allocations, amid growing debt crisis.
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.
Finance
Analysis
No false solutions: IMF surcharges must go
The IMF’s surcharges review presents a golden opportunity to eliminate these harmful and counterproductive fees.
Gender
Analysis
IMF’s Interim Guidance Note on Mainstreaming Gender fails to address negative gendered impacts of IMF austerity
Gender Guidance note offers non-mandatory advice to staff on mainstreaming gender but integration of existing in-depth critiques from feminists and civil society needed to tackle gender inequality is missing.
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.
IFI governance
Analysis
G20 press conference analysis Spring Meetings 2024: Concrete actions fail to materialise despite strong Brazilian push
In the absence of a G20 Communiqué or Chair statement, Brazilian minister of finance, head of the central bank and other senior officials took questions at a short press conference, with discussion focused on the impact of continued restrictive US monetary policy on the global debt and development finance and the need for more responsive and better capitalised MDBs.
IFI governance
Analysis
V20 communiqué analysis Spring Meetings 2024: Climate vulnerable countries issue call to action, as net-negative flows result in ‘millions in, billions out’ amid growing debt burdens
V20 members are expected to pay $904.7 billion in debt service between 2022-2030, as debt, lack of financing and low projected growth hampers prospects for green economic transformation.
IFI governance
Analysis
IMFC chair’s statement analysis Spring Meetings 2024: Tinkering at the margins while global crises unfold
IMFC chair’s relatively sanguine view of the global economy does not reflect the IMF’s own projection that the five-year global economic growth forecast is “at its lowest in decades”.
IFI governance
Analysis
G24 communiqué analysis Spring Meetings 2024: Calls for reform, not protectionism
The Spring 2024 G24 communiqué puts pressure on the BWIs to use their influence where it’s needed, including calls to suspend and review surcharges, offer the biggest ever IDA replenishment, suppot the UN Tax Convention, and avoid protectionist policies.
Featured briefings
9 June 2025
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.
15 April 2025
The Bretton Woods Observer: Spring 2025
2 April 2025