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G20

President Ramaphosa officiate first meeting of G20 Foreign Ministers under South African Presidency. Photo: Government of South Africa/ Flickr

IFI governance

Analysis

G20 press conference and media statement analysis Spring Meetings 2025: lack of Chair's statement yet more evidence of challenges to global consensus

The South African G20 Presidency failed to issue a communiqué and opted not to issue a Chair’s statement at the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings as the US administration’s explicit hostility to multilateralism significantly decreases the potential for consensus across all multilateral fora.

30 April 2025

IFI governance

Analysis

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.

17 April 2025
Illustration showing the World Bank, the IMF and the EU and USA flags watering down the spirit of Monterrey from the walls of Seville old city.

Finance

Analysis

Civil society calls for FfD4 to revive 'spirit of Monterrey' and reassert UN's role in global economic governance

The role of Bretton Woods Institutions remains a key point of contention, amidst their stark governance deficits.

15 April 2025
Ethiopia Minister of Finance at the Horn of Africa Initiative Ministerial meeting, Brussels December 2023. Photo: Christophe Licoppe/ European Union/Wikimedia

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.

15 April 2025
Palace of Nations - UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo: Trabantos/ Shutterstock

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.

15 April 2025
The World Bank's interactive new Corporate Scorecard on display at the 2024 World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings in Washington DC. Credit: Paul Blake/ World Bank.

Accountability

Analysis

Missing in action: accountability is noticeably absent from the World Bank Group’s new Corporate Scorecard

The Corporate Scorecard’s accountability gap is symptomatic of a broader failure on the part of the WBG to fully internalise, integrate and learn from the work of its accountability mechanisms.

12 December 2024 | At Issue

IFI governance

News

New report debunks claims that inadequate MDB transparency results from private sector concerns

Amid underwhelming private capital mobilisation, new report underscores poor state of transparency and disclosure of private sector finance by multilateral development banks and development finance institutions.

12 December 2024
Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva clasps hands with World Bank President Ajay Banga at the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable during the 2024 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC, on 23 October 2024. Credit: IMF Photo/Allison Shelley

IFI governance

Analysis

Annual Meetings 2024 Wrap-up - Don’t look back: BWIs plough down path of reforms lacking evidence and willingness to engage with broader UN-led reform processes

The 2024 World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings, taking place in the context of the institutions’ 80th anniversary, offered little substantive reform despite multiple ongoing organisational processes and reviews.

30 October 2024
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Other news

Finance

News

IDA21 cobbles together $100 billion replenishment in context of wider aid cuts

Amid concerns about the policy package and in the face of global crises, IDA's 21st replenishment showed difficulty of mobilising donor finance amid elections and geopolitical tensions.

12 December 2024

Environment

News

Trump election may add pressure to reverse World Bank’s prohibition on support for nuclear power

Donald Trump’s election may result in a revision of World Bank’s long-standing prohibition of support to nuclear power.

12 December 2024

Finance

News

A different ‘evolution roadmap’: Havana conference calls for changes in world order hierarchy

As IMF and World Bank tinker at margins, 50 policymakers, diplomats and academics from over 26 countries issue Havana Declaration calling for an assertion of Southern power and the building of a new "planetary bloc".

5 April 2023

Finance

News

Chad gets debt rescheduling, not relief, and is left dependent on oil revenues

Chad has reached an agreement to restructure its nearly $3 billion of external debt, unlocking IMF financing, but the deal has been criticised for failing to reduce the country’s overall debt burden.

8 December 2022

Finance

Analysis

Our world in 2020

As the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated and helped reveal pre-existing injustices and structural flaws in the global economy - and the IMF and World Bank proved unable to reverse course on broke policy prescriptions - calls for reforming the international financial and development architecture gained strength. 

22 February 2021

Finance

Background

Taxing to Develop: International Taxation Challenges for Africa

Notes from the IMF and World Bank 2019 Spring Meetings official session on 14 April on international taxation challenges in Africa. 

18 April 2019 | Minutes

Finance

News

Argentina increases offer to bondholders after IMF claims “room for improvement”

Private creditors provided with IMF backing in Argentina negotiations as country enters into default.

16 July 2020

Infrastructure

Background

Sustainable Infrastructure: Aligning with Rights and the SDGs

Notes from the Civil Society Policy Forum event on 10 April, which looked at sustainable infrastructure from fiscal, rights and climate lenses.

17 April 2019 | Minutes
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