IFI governance

News

World Bank self-image revealed

This summer the World Bank’s external affairs team commissioned a detailed survey of views about what the Bank does and should do.

Knowledge

News

Organising for the 2000 poverty report

The 2000 Report will tackle poverty and be led by Ravi Kanbur, of Cornell University in the USA, working with a team of Bank staff including Michael Walton, Director, Poverty Reduction.

Rights

News

Bank boss meets rights groups

Leading human rights NGOs met World Bank President Wolfensohn in June.

Knowledge

News

What is the WDR for, and how is it produced?

Given the lack of clarity and satisfaction about how WDRs are produced, and the difficulty of persuading the authors to recognise and include alternative views, the Bretton Woods Project has written to the Bank asking for a formal explanation.

Knowledge

News

Draft Bank gender policy queried

The World Bank has circulated a consultation paper towards a proposed Policy Research Report on gender issues to be published in Spring 2000.

Finance

News

IDA talks climax

The World Bank is now in the advanced stages of negotiation with donor countries on funding for the next 3 years of its International Development Association soft loan funding arm.

Rights

News

Green project causes plant closure

Bulgarian NGOs are angry about the sale of a major copper smelter to a Belgian company as part of a World Bank environment project.

IFI governance

News

CAS publication agreed

The Bank has agreed to publish Country Assistance Strategies (CAS) - the documents which set out the Bank’s multi-year lending plans - once they have been discussed by the Board and if the borrower government requests it.

IFI governance

News

Forest review concession

The Bank has now accepted that its Forest Policy Implementation Review will look at effects on forests of its non-forest lending, and that its Operations Evaluation Department will do some of the field studies.

Finance

News

Russian lessons for the IMF

The Russian economic crisis, hot on the heels of the Asian meltdown, has provoked the Financial Times to comment that “the role of the International Monetary Fund in preventing crises has been comprehensively undermined.”

IFI governance

News

East Asia Crisis group examines NGO roles

The World Bank has established an East Asia Crisis working group to tackle some of the social aspects of the financial crisis.

IFI governance

News

Blair proposes IFI reforms

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair made a speech at the New York Stock Exchange arguing that the World Bank and IMF have fundamental weaknesses and need to be reformed.