Private Sector

News

Elections “don’t matter”: says Indonesia fund manager

Foreigners may not know much about these parties, they may not care much, but at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter who wins as long as the IMF and World Bank are still calling the shots.

Private Sector

News

MIGA policies finalised

In May the Board of Directors of MIGA, the World Bank Group’s private sector risk guarantee arm, agreed new policies and procedures.

Accountability

News

Indonesian NGOs criticise safety net, oppose new loans

In response to concerns that ruling party Golkar would misuse World Bank funds for election purposes, the Bank and IMF agreed in May to put new loans into a special Bank of Indonesia account.

IFI governance

News

Bank hires UK corporate governance expert

This summer Anne Simpson will leave Pensions and Investment Research Consultants to develop the World Bank’s corporate governance strategy for the private sector.

Knowledge

News

Absolute poverty rising: targets doubtful

New World Bank estimates suggest that 1.5bn people live in abject poverty, up from 1.

Trade

News

Research chief slammed for WTO role

NGOs at the WTO High Level Symposium on Trade and Development in March signed a statement expressing outrage at the way that Paul Collier (Director, Development Research Group, World Bank) chaired the session on “Linkages between trade and development policies”.

Knowledge

News

New Bank wisdom on economic crises

The Bank has identified 5 main ways in which macroeconomic crises affect the poor.

News

Daily Bank press listings

To keep in touch with world press coverage of the World Bank, you can subscribe to the World Bank External Affairs Department’s free daily email Development News clippings service.

Social services

News

Lack of commitment for Social Principles

The Social Principles, proposed last autumn by UK Chancellor Gordon Brown as the “fourth pillar” of the international architecture, are likely to prove ineffective.

Knowledge

News

Bank hosts e-discussions

The World Bank has recently been inviting NGOs to engage in a large number of electronic discussions on its website “Development Forum”.

Finance

News

ESAF reforms to focus on poverty eradication

Clare Short, UK Secretary of State for International Development, has called in parliament for the reform of the IMF’s ESAF loans to make them pro-poor.

Knowledge

News

Gender policy paper progress

Next year the World Bank will produce a Policy Research Report (PRR) on Gender Development.