The collapse of a flagship water privatisation in Tanzania, and opposition to both a planned privatisation of the state cotton board and the completed privatisation of the state railway in Mali, highlight the continuing struggle over pressure from the Bretton Woods institutions to privatise in Africa.
Agriculture
Land
News
Aid, death and dogma
A report released in May by UK NGO Christian Aid, documents case studies in India, Ghana and Jamaica where imposed liberalisation has ravaged local industry with devastating social impacts.
Land
News
Bank on agricultural trade: export strategy “impoverishing”
The latest World Bank publication on agricultural trade finds that a "development strategy based on agricultural commodity exports is likely to be impoverishing in the current policy environment".
Land
News
IFC funds Amazon deforestation, undermines safeguard policies
Brazilian and international NGOs charge that IFC-funded soy and cattle projects in the Amazon further deforestation, ignore social and environmental risks and contradict World Bank policy.
Land
News
IFC-funded goldmine shut down by local protest
Following two weeks of protests and road blocks that shut down the city of Cajamarca…
Rights
News
Concerns about Brazil soya project
Brazilian NGOs challenge proposed World Bank Group support for soya farming in the Amazon region.
Rights
News
Pakistani hunger strikers seek reparations for damaging project
In March Pakistani activists observed a hunger strike in front of the World Bank offices in Islamabad. The strikers pointed out that Bank-backed projects have caused serious damage to their livelihoods and the coastal ecology and called for the loan to be suspended.
Rights
News
World Bank pushes Malawi agriculture privatisation
World Bank manoeuvres to ensure parliamentary approval of a controversial agriculture privatisation policy demonstrates the continued influence of the Bank and the problems with Poverty and Social Impact Analysis.
Land
News
Bank pushed policies likely to cause famine - book
A former Bank consultant has charged the Bank with pushing policies which would have led to the starvation of a third of a million people in Sierra Leone.
Rights
News
Bank timid steps on land reform
The World Bank’s Land Policy department is preparing a Policy Research Report on land reform, which NGOs criticise for too heavily favouring a market-assisted approach.
Featured briefings
21 July 2022
Ending “absolute immunity” for the International Finance Corporation: The legacy of Jam v. IFC
EarthRights International examines how the Jam v. IFC case has helped to shift the landscape of accountability for international financial institutions by successfully challenging their claim to “absolute” immunity in US courts, potentially opening IFC up to further legal challenges in future.
21 July 2022
The Bretton Woods Observer: Summer 2022
14 April 2022