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.
The World Bank, in conjunction with the G20, is reinvigorating its infrastructure focus, paying particular attention to leveraging resources from the private sector and investing in fragile and conflict affected states. It announced a return to big hydropower projects, despite continued concerns about projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guatemala and Uganda.
As the negotiations on the 17th replenishment of the World Bank's International Development Association (IDA) pass the half way mark, a real-terms drop in IDA and stingier terms for borrowers have been agreed. The discussion has focussed largely on the private sector and fragile states.
On the sidelines of this week's G20 summit, BRICS nations are expected to reveal details of how their proposed $100 billion alternative to the IMF will operate.
In written evidence submitted to the UK parliament's International Development Committee, we argue that further reform of the World Bank is needed.
As the World Bank's attention moves from goal-setting to implementation of a new strategy, it is becoming clear that it intends to further prioritise the role of the private sector and adopt many practices of its private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), as the main pillars for the whole group.
While the World Bank's leadership is further embracing private equity funds, the IFC's investment in financial intermediaries is again hitting the headlines over allegations of 'land grabs' in South East Asia and lack of respect for indigenous people's rights in Honduras.
Two April IMF reports purport to present a new view on labour market policy, however, they have attracted heavy criticism from trade unions as inaccurate and flawed.
As the World Bank released a new report on the impacts of climate change and is due to discuss its energy focus, it defended its engagement in fossil fuels, including the Kosovo coal power plant.
In June the IMF released an ex post assessment of its 2010 lending programme to Greece which described a series of errors and found that the Fund consciously chose to break its own rules on the sustainability of the programme.
By this year's October annual meetings, we will know what the World Bank board has decided on what happens next to that institution's controversial and most popular publication, the Doing Business report.
Since the creation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Green Climate Fund (GCF) in 2010, concerns have grown about the World Bank's potential role in designing policies to determine the allocation of resources for adaptation and mitigation activities in developing countries.
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.
