The replenishment process for IDA21 concludes in early December, amid hopes of a record replenishment and concerns over the global debt crisis.
World Bank Group
Gender
News
2024 Gender IFI Summer School
Gender IFI Summer School, brings together regional and global organisations working to advance economic justice issues, particularly from a feminist perspective, to discuss the IFIs’ impact on women’s rights and wellbeing, as well as strategies and tactics to push back.
Environment
News
Jamaica’s World Bank-brokered catastrophe bond fails to pay despite devastation of Hurricane Beryl
Bond's 'parametric criteria' were not triggered by powerful storm, despite the entire island being declared a disaster zone.
Environment
Analysis
Year one of World Bank Paris Agreement alignment in the energy sector: ‘green conditionality’ dwarfs green investments
New BWP research finds the Word Bank's approach to Paris alignment is being used to a significant extent to impose ‘green conditionalities' on borrowing countries, especially in the Global South.
IFI governance
News
The Bretton Woods Institutions at 80: Where do we go from here?
As the World Bank and IMF celebrate their 80th anniversary in 2024, on 10th July the Bretton Woods Project, together with the SOAS Centre for Sustainable Finance, were joined by a distinguished group of panellists to critically analyse the opportunities for, and challenges to, reforms of the BWIs and the international financial architecture more broadly.
Accountability
Analysis
Is the World Bank rolling back commitments to citizen engagement, again?
Understanding the Bank’s chequered history with public, community and civil society participation is key for understanding what is at stake and what to do next.
Finance
News
'Worst ever’ debt crisis puts IDA’s financial model at risk, underscoring need for ambitious donor contributions to IDA21 replenishment
The unfolding debt crisis threatens IDA’s support for 75 low-income countries, without replenishment of grant resources.
Environment
News
World Bank's $1 billion loan to South Africa risks undermining just transition by doubling down on 'de-risking' private capital
Despite the Just Energy Transition Partnership's failure to attract private investments in South Africa, the World Bank is doubling down on a private sector led approach to the green transition through $1 billion loan contingent on the separation of Eskom’s activities.
Private Sector
Background
What is the International Finance Corporation (IFC)?
This Inside the Institutions explores the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank Group’s private sector arm. It examines the function of the IFC as a development institution focused solely on private sector solutions to development and considers civil society critiques.
Land
News
World Bank agricultural reform programme facilitates exploitation of Zambian farmers
New seed law will benefit agribusiness but infringe on farmers’ rights to share and reuse their own seeds, which will undermine food security in a country where smallholder farmers grow most of the country’s staple food.
Infrastructure
News
Banga calls energy access a ‘human right’ as he announces World Bank will provide access for 250 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030
Explicit mention of human rights obligations has long been a taboo subject at the World Bank.
Trade
News
Ecuador ratifies 2008 ban on investor-state dispute settlement mechanism
Ecuador referendum reinforces the country’s decision against a mechanism criticised for being asymmetric, unjust and detrimental to citizens’ rights.
