Analysis

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

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.

16 October 2024
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
cover illustration of the Observer Summer 2024

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.

3 July 2024
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
Civil society member holding a sign: Stop IMF Surcharges

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.

3 July 2024 | Guest analysis

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.

3 July 2024
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

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.

24 April 2024

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.

24 April 2024

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”.

24 April 2024

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.

24 April 2024