Articles & resources
Critical voices on the World Bank and the IMF
Filter results
By topic
(0 selected)
By institution
(0 selected)
By geography
(0 selected)
By type
(0 selected)
By advocacy project
(0 selected)
By date
-
Annual Meetings 2025 Wrap-up: IMF and World Bank declare uncertainty the “new normal” amid spectacle showcasing US and private capital interests
Annual Meetings showcased the BWIs’ efforts to prove their loyalty to the current US administration and prioritise private capital, even as multilateralism erodes and civil society space shrinks.
-
A potential integration of the World Bank and IFC/MIGA accountability mechanisms: How can we ensure complainants’ best interests?
This CSPF panel explored the potential and implications of merging the World Bank Group’s independent accountability mechanisms
-
Annual Meetings 2025 Preamble: Bank and Fund struggle to find response to global backlash to neoliberalism, as ‘new Bretton Woods’ reforms sputter
The mounting contradictions between rhetoric and practice at the IMF and World Bank grow as geopolitical tensions and poor economic prospects strain social and political stability.
-
IFC Sustainability Framework Review: Overlooking structural issues
Constrained by the shareholders’ focus on returns over financial risk, IFC prioritises safe markets and leverage, often crowding out private finance instead of providing patient capital for development.
-
IFC Sustainability Framework Review
This Inside the Institutions critically analyses the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) review of its Sustainability Framework, amidst intensifying scrutiny of its harmful investments.
-
IDA21 policy package disappoints as prospects for IDA countries continue to darken
After difficult negotiations due to American pressure on climate and gender, World Bank governors approve IDA21 document, embedding the Bank’s problematic private sector-led development approach and failing to integrate economic transformation or binding human rights obligations.
-
Spring Meetings 2025 Wrap-up: Don’t look up! Bank and Fund leadership self-censors on climate change and gender issues, as US tariffs rock global economic outlook
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent indicates US will stay in the Bank and Fund, claiming “America First does not mean America alone,” as tariffs and rising debt vulnerabilities prompt gloomy forecast.
-
Spring Meetings 2025 Preamble: geopolitical turmoil further muddies path of BWI reform and multilateral cooperation
As the World Bank and IMF prepare for the 2025 Spring Meetings, the US executive order reviewing its participation in global institutions has heightened long-standing concerns about the direction of the Bretton Woods system – with civil society turning to FfD4 to reimagine the future of multilateralism.
-
New report documents abuses at IFC-funded hospitals, further exposing consequences of the “billions to trillions” approach
Bloomberg investigation adds further evidence of negative consequences for people and governments of IFC’s for-profit healthcare model.
-
Communities demand justice as IFC fails to address coal financing fallout
IFC faces backlash for failing to address social and environmental harms from its financing of coal plants in the Philippines, despite proven health and environmental violations.
