Rudolf Amenga-Etego of GrassrootsAfrica comments that the Ghanaian government must re-prioritise the national budget in favour of the water sector. However, this will only be possible if the international financial institutions are restrained.
Commentary
Rights
Commentary
Boycott statement of London IFC/civil society meeting
Statement by UK civil society organisations regarding their reasons for boycotting the IFC's consultation meeting of 1 November 2004 on the revision of safeguards and disclosure policy
Social services
Commentary
Contradictions in the World Banks India Country Assistance Strategy
In August, representatives of social movements, national alliances and civil society organisations met in New Delhi and issued a statement explicitly rejecting the Bank's strategy for India.
Social services
Commentary
“Middle-income country”? Over half live in poverty
The recently announced four-year programme of the World Bank for Mexico overstates the involvement of civil society and fails to address the real causes of poverty.
Conditionality
Commentary
Lula and Kirchner want IMF to relax its grip
A new initiative to rewrite the rules of engagement with the IMF could mark the biggest change in creditor-debtor relations in a generation.
Conditionality
Commentary
Life under the IMF’s magnifying glass:
The Fund takes to micro-management in Zambia to ensure compliance with belt tightening measures, threatening civil unrest.
Infrastructure
Commentary
The World Bank's high-risk hypocrisy
the World Bank is not serious about the social and environmental policies it trumpets at global conferences. Senior World Bank staff in its India office indicated that they neither know nor care about procedures that are supposed to make its infrastructure lending socially responsible. This represents institutional hypocrisy.
IFI governance
Commentary
Are you listening carefully?
Whatever changes in the World Bank and IMF, one thing remains constant. The flood of…
Knowledge
News
Bankspeak of the Year 2003 award
The most incomprehensible use of words in a Bank document or speech. The fog of development.
Rights
Commentary
Governance & Police impunity in Andhra Pradesh
Statement by two Indian human rights group urging the World Bank not to approve a major loan to the state of Andra Pradesh on 16 December. The statement outlines many problems with human rights and governance in the state and argues that a loan at this time of crisis and instability would embolden the government to continue with its repressive policies, while civil society groups would not be in a position to criticise improper utilization of the loans.
Private Sector
Commentary
Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline
Around the world, when politics and money prevail, the environment is the last issue considered.…
Conditionality
Commentary
The myths and dangers of PRSPs
The myths of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers - that they are nationally owned, pro-poor, and poverty-reducing - should be debunked.
