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UN

Finance

Analysis

UN Secretary General's New Agenda for Peace calls for urgent financial architecture and policy reform

UN Secretary General’s New Agenda for Peace report identifies growing threats to global peace and stability, and proposes urgent reforms to the unjust economic system. World Bank and IMF resist policy and governance reform.

13 December 2023

Environment

News

Selection of World Bank to host new Loss and Damage Fund draws ire of developing countries and civil society advocates

Developing countries insist on lengthy list of conditions as Bank is named host of new Loss and Damage Fund on interim basis.

13 December 2023
Crops field in Ukraine

Land

Commentary

Ukraine's post-war agricultural recovery: Returning to the way things were is not enough

World Bank and other international financial institutions need to ensure Ukraine’s agriculture sector reforms lead to increased liquidity for smaller farms and ensure local development, environmentally sustainable investments and a transparent land market.

4 October 2023 | Guest comment
International Human Rights Day protest Manila, 10 December 2020.

Finance

Analysis

Debt sustainability assessment reform essential to address retrogression of international human rights

Recent reports outlining the extensive negative human rights impacts of debt and austerity further evidence the urgency of the need for the IMF and World Bank to go beyond financial sustainability in debt sustainability analysis.

4 October 2023

Accountability

News

UDHR and IPN anniversaries underscore urgent need for Human Rights policy at all IFIs

World Bank and IMF shareholders must use the anniversaries of the Inspection Panel and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights respectively to demand both establish human rights policies and meet their international obligation to provide remedy

19 July 2023

Finance

Analysis

UN Financing for Development: The best chance to democratise global economic governance?

As Bretton Woods Institutions fail to deliver transformative, systematic reform of deeply unequal global architecture, countries should embrace a more democratic space: the United Nations Financing for Development process

19 July 2023 | Guest analysis

Rights

Background

The World Bank's approach to human rights

This Inside the Institutions explores how the World Bank approaches human rights in the context of the international human rights obligations of international financial and development institutions.

19 July 2023 | Inside the institutions

IFI governance

Analysis

Spring Meetings 2023 Preamble: Threats to multilateral system and to achievement of development goals mount as hopes of substantive reform at World Bank and IMF wane

Spring Meetings unlikely to deliver structural reforms required to respond to worsening polycrisis, as Global North-driven World Bank reform set to divert attention from poverty and inequality and geopolitical tensions dampen hopes of new SDR allocation and IMF quota reform.

6 April 2023
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Other news

Finance

News

Civil society urges governments to agree on a UN tax body as a high priority

African Group’s proposal for a UN Tax Convention moves forward as CSOs keep pressure on rich countries not to block it.

13 December 2023

Finance

News

IMF continues to disregard UN Human Rights Commission concerns about its surcharge policy

IMF managing director continues to refuse to answer letter from UN Human Rights Council concerning the negative impact of IMF surcharges as world celebrates 75th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

5 April 2023

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

UN letter of allegation outlines concerns about the impact of IMF surcharge policy on human rights

Civil society urges IMF to reply to UN letter and finally take action to review its surcharge policy.

8 December 2022

IFI governance

Background

Global South feminist perspectives and proposals on accelerating climate finance for countries facing debt crises

Notes from a Civil Society Policy Forum event on 12 October titled, "Global South feminist perspectives and proposals on accelerating climate finance for countries facing debt crises."

12 October 2022 | Minutes

Rights

News

'Uber Files' and 'Back off BlackRock' campaign expose 'pink washing' as the heart of corporate women's economic empowerment agenda

Uber Leaks and cancelled BlackRock and UN Women partnership highlight contradiction of corporate ‘pink washing’ interests with IFI gender commitments.

4 October 2022

Rights

News

Will IMF Strategy for Fragile and Conflict-Affected States escape traditional focus on austerity?

The IMF’s new Fragile and Conflict-Affected States strategy has incorporated many civil society concerns, but civil society and international actors like the UN must also have input into its implementation.

4 October 2022

Gender

Background

The Bretton Woods Project welcomes new gender project staff

BWP is pleased to welcome Friederike Strub as our Gender Equality and Macroeconomics Lead and Amy McShane as Gender Project Officer.

6 April 2022 | Project news
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