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World Bank Group
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.
Social services
News
Little new in IMF/WB pilots
Several of the pilot ESAF collaboration studies between the IMF and world Bank are in trouble, and new countries may need to be selected.
IFI governance
News
Bank study finds adjustment impact studies inadequate
A leaked May 1999 draft Bank review of structural and sectoral adjustment loans severely criticises their treatment of environmental and social issues.
Knowledge
News
Bank Poverty Assessments - “irrelevant”?
The Bank’s Poverty Assessments contain “relatively little of policy relevance” because of their narrow focus on income-based poverty lines, according to a report by the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague.
Knowledge
News
Early fears of mass Indonesian poverty “unfounded”, says Bank
The worst fears of massive increases in poverty in Indonesia are “unfounded” according to a report by the World Bank, which draws on 3 new surveys on the social implications of the financial crisis.
Private Sector
News
Confusion about WB private sector review
Government officials who negotiated contributions to the Bank’s IDA 12 lending window agreed with the Bank that “a clear private sector development strategy should be established for the World bank Group during the course of 1999 to guide the work of the IBRD, IDA, IFC and MIGA”.
Social services
News
Indonesian safety nets condemned
The coordination, coverage and targetting of public works schemes in Indonesia, part of the Bank’s safety-net programme, has been poor, and resources have been diverted for other uses.
Accountability
News
Corporate lobbying at the Bank exposed
A recent article in the Legal Times alleges that there is significant corporate lobbying of the World Bank.
