Civil society Financing for Development (FfD) Mechanism calls for FfD4 conference to deliver meaningful reform and a true path towards democratic multilateralism.
World Bank Group
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.
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.
IFI governance
Analysis
Development Committee chair’s statement analysis Annual Meetings 2024: compounding crises expose the World Bank’s role in structural failures but limit scope for reform
Despite Development Committee’s call for increased development impact amidst compounding crises, persistent geopolitical fragmentation constrains the critical reforms needed to address structural failures.
IFI governance
Analysis
G20 communiqué analysis Annual Meetings 2024: progress on tax and inequality obscures Group's wider failures
At the 25th anniversary of the Group’s Finance Track, the G20 communiqué’s robust language on the taxation of billionaires, including encouraging “constructive discussions” about the UN Tax Conference was contrasted by much more cautious language on MDB reform, climate finance, debt and Special Drawing Rights.
IFI governance
Analysis
G24 communiqué analysis Annual Meetings 2024: calls for robust multilateral response to mounting risk and global crises
G24 calls for robust multilateral response to debt, development and climate crises, arguing the IMF and World Bank must continue reform in order to maintain legitimacy and fulfil their mandate.
IFI governance
Analysis
V20 communiqué analysis Annual Meetings 2024: climate vulnerable countries once again demand key changes to IMF’s approach, as world risks breaching climate tipping points
V20 members offered a searing indictment of rich countries’ failure to act on BWIs governance, debt relief, climate finance and SDRs.
Accountability
Background
Strengthening governance of development policy finance: Improving transparency, accountability, stakeholder engagement, and Paris alignment
Notes from the Civil Society Policy Forum on 24 October 2024 titled "Strengthening governance of development policy finance: Improving transparency, accountability, stakeholder engagement, and Paris alignment".
IFI governance
Background
Problematising the Bank’s reliance on financial inclusion, from the gender strategy to the corporate scorecard
Notes from a Civil Society Policy Forum panel on 22 October titled "Problematising the Bank’s Reliance on Financial Inclusion, from the Gender Strategy to the Corporate Scorecard".
IFI governance
Analysis
Annual Meetings 2024 Preamble: BWIs’ management and key shareholders stand in the way of transformative governance reforms despite ‘evolution’ rhetoric
Unconvincing World Bank Evolution Roadmap reforms and IMF’s struggle to mainstream climate and gender symptomatic of wider malaise.
IFI governance
Analysis
New World Bank Corporate Scorecard: overlooking client priorities and ignoring development impact
The World Bank’s new Corporate Scorecard misses the forest for the trees as it lacks an indicator to measure the Bank’s contribution to economic transformation, a cornerstone of its development mandate.
Conditionality
Analysis
Kenya's growing youth movement for fiscal justice rejects IMF-mandated austerity
Youth-led led protests lead to withdrawal of controversial finance bill by President William Ruto.
Featured briefings
12 December 2024
The Bretton Woods Observer: Winter 2024
12 December 2024
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.
16 October 2024