Analysis

Environment

Analysis

Climate Investment Funds Monitor 7

The Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) are financing instruments designed to pilot low-carbon and climate-resilient development through the multilateral development banks (MDBs). They are comprised of two trust funds - the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF).

25 April 2013 | Briefings

Rights

Analysis

World Bank on jobs: a "significant departure" or "business as usual"?

The opening sentences of the 2013 World Development Report Jobs, could not be clearer: "Jobs are the cornerstone of economic and social development". Brendan Martin of UK NGO Public World examines the policy implications for developing economies, trade unions and the wider development community.

13 February 2013 | At Issue

Environment

Analysis

Working paper: The private sector and climate change adaptation

This paper looks at PPCR projects implemented under the World Bank's private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation, highlighting important questions concerning the design, implementation and operation of projects financed from public climate funds using private sector actors. In summary, the analysis suggests that the integration of private sector projects into national planning processes and strategies is crucial.

24 April 2013 | Briefings

Environment

Analysis

Climate Investment Funds Monitor 6

The Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) are financing instruments designed to pilot low-carbon and climate-resilient development through the multilateral development banks (MDBs). They are comprised of two trust funds - the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF).

26 October 2012 | Briefings

Accountability

Analysis

The IFIs in 2012: year in review

2012 saw continued crisis in Europe, but also a turning point in the leadership selection of the World Bank. The choice of Dr Jim Yong Kim as new president, who brings a background in public health in developing countries, marked the first ever selection of a development practitioner to lead the institution. However, large bureaucracies are slow to change, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) found out with its inability to extricate itself from the morass developing in the eurozone.

25 January 2013 | Review

Infrastructure

Analysis

The World Bank and industrial policy: Hands off or hands on?

Former deputy secretary general of UNCTAD Carlos Fortin, of the Institute of Development Studies, examines the Bank's record on industrial policy over the last 20 years and shows that the Bank's position is more nuanced.

6 December 2012 | At Issue

Social services

Analysis

IFIs' new "house of cards" in Central and Eastern Europe

IFIs are renewing their focus on Central and Eastern European states. This comes amidst fears that growth in the region needs to be rekindled. The World Bank has promised more funding for countries at risk of instability. However, IMF loans being negotiated with Romania and Hungary have met with controversy.

6 December 2012

Accountability

Background

Climate Investment Funds Monitor survey

The Bretton Woods Project launched the twice-yearly Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) Monitor in 2010 to track the development of the CIFs and highlight concerns. As it approaches our third year, we would like your input into how we can improve the CIFs Monitor to ensure that it remains a valuable resource for civil society and other interested stakeholders of the CIFs.

3 November 2012 | Review

Social services

Analysis

Infrastructure as an asset class

A forthcoming report on private equity infrastructure funds by Nicholas Hildyard of NGO The Corner House, More than bricks and mortar, looks at the connections between infrastructure funding and international financial markets, and at the wider political project that infrastructure embodies. In this briefing, Hildyard argues that the transformation of infrastructure into an asset class has environmental and social implications far beyond what can be handled by stronger safeguards on investments.

3 July 2012 | At Issue

Environment

Analysis

Climate Investment Funds Monitor 5

The Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) are financing instruments designed to pilot low-carbon and climate-resilient development through the multilateral development banks (MDBs). They are comprised of two trust funds - the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF).

1 May 2012 | Briefings

Accountability

Analysis

'Leveraging' private sector finance

The notion that public investments should be used to 'leverage' additional investments from private actors is increasingly used in a variety of development finance forums, including aid, development finance, agriculture and, in particular, climate finance. The World Bank has become one of the leading proponents of this concept, though nowhere has it spelled out clearly what it means by 'leverage' or how it should be measured.

18 April 2012 | Reports

Conditionality

Analysis

IMF policy recommendations

IMF policy recommendations are often criticised for being too restrictive, procyclical and paying little attention to country-specific circumstances. In the aftermath of the 2008 crisis, the Fund showed some policy rethinking, bringing about expectations of change. However, Rathin Roy and Raquel A. Ramos of the UNDP Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth analyse IMF policy recommendations given to developing countries and conclude that headquarters' receptiveness to new approaches has not been trans

27 March 2012 | At Issue