Anti-gender rhetoric, furthered by the new US administration, brings fresh questions over the approach of the World Bank and IMF to gender equality, given their controversial track record.
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
IFI governance
News
New Independent Evaluation Office findings expose political pressures and over-optimism in IMF’s Exceptional Access Policy
Evaluation finds Exceptional Access Policy has been applied inconsistently, influenced by political pressures, and used as a substitute for debt restructuring while failing to attract private capital.
Finance
News
Private lenders’ resistance to Ethiopia's debt relief highlights urgent need for debt architecture reform
Ethiopia becomes the latest victim of the dysfunctional Common Framework, as private lenders continue to hold out on its debt restructuring with significant human rights, social and economic consequences.
Conditionality
News
The IMF’s 2025 Conditionality Review: a test of reform or repeat?
Despite past acknowledgments of flawed policies, austerity-driven programmes continue to deepen economic hardship, entrench inequality, and prioritise creditors over sustainable development.
Rights
News
UN Human Rights Council debt roundtable concludes debt crisis is a human rights crisis
UN Human Rights Council’s Seventh Intersessional Meeting calls for states to use FfD4 to agree reforms that enable states to deliver on their human rights obligations.
Knowledge
Background
Bretton Woods Project Annual Report 2024
In 2024 BWP continued to support global civil society in pushing for transformative change, advocating for a multilateral system that is democratic, inclusive, transparent, accountable and responsive to people, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.
Finance
News
FfD4 is a feminist issue
FfD4 civil society feminist workstream calls for gender and race equality, human rights and systemic change in the international financial architecture, while groups plan strategic convening in Morocco.
Finance
News
BWIs use frozen Russian assets as part of $50 billion support to Ukraine
BWIs engineer creative ways to provide financial support to Ukraine using frozen Russian assets as back up, in contrast to lack of support for debt-stricken African countries.
Knowledge
Background
Recommended resources on the World Bank and the IMF 2024
BWP's collection of recommended reports, briefings, CSO letters and other resources published on the World Bank and the IMF in the past year .
Environment
Analysis
COP29 sees MDBs climate finance take centre stage, as civil society brands new climate finance goal a ‘betrayal’
Rich countries agree to provide a paltry $300 billion in public finance by 2035 including funds channelled through MDBs, as Small Island States and Least Developed Countries stage walkout.
Conditionality
Analysis
Who’s afraid of the grassroots? IMF policymaking in the era of social discontent
IMF proposes a grassroots communication strategy to convince the public of the need for further austerity measures as publications reveal fear that social unrest will make reforms ‘unimplementable’.
Finance
News
IMF’s PRGT review places the burden of financing the program on low-income countries
As the IMF increases cost of lending for LICs by introducing a tiered interest mechanism to the PRGT, CSOs and V20 Group call instead for an SDR interest rate cap to reduce the cost of lending and for sale of gold reserves to address the funding gap.
