World Bank commits to invest additional $5 billion in the Great Green Wall over the next five years, despite shortcomings in its existing investments in the initiative highlighted by IEG.
Agriculture
Land
Analysis
The wrongdoings of the Doing Business Rankings and the corporate take-over of agriculture
Civil society urges the World Bank to scrap DBR and EBA, claiming the latter harms small-scale farmers by putting corporate interests first.
Land
News
IMF and World Bank help push through contentious Ukraine land reform amid Covid-19 pandemic
Bank and Fund-backed land bill passed in dead of night during lockdown favouring private investors and Western agribusiness.
Land
News
World Bank, IMF and EBRD push for controversial land reform in Ukraine
Ukraine passes contentious draft land reform law under pressure from World Bank, IMF and EBRD.
Rights
Commentary
World Bank continues colonial legacy on Assam’s tea plantations
CAO report validates 2013 complaint by Indian NGOs on IFC investment in colonial tea plantation in Assam. The IFC's action plan is very limited in scope.
Rights
Analysis
World Bank turns its back on pastoralist communities in Africa
The World Bank has granted a waiver of its indigenous peoples policy for a project in Tanzania, raising concerns about impact on indigenous communities and lack of consultation.
Land
News
World Bank’s agriculture initiative criticised
Civil society has called on the World Bank to terminate its Enabling the Business of Agriculture initiative.
Rights
News
Renewed calls for World Bank to suspend funding for Uzbekistan
Civil society organisations have renewed their calls for the World Bank to suspend funding to Uzbekistan, due to continued concerns about forced and child labour in the cotton harvest.
Environment
Analysis
Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR)
The Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR) has expanded with ten countries despite a lack of funds. The US questioned the approval of a Bolivia project and resettlement issues were raised on two Cambodia projects.
Land
News
NGOs denounce World Bank land conference
NGO coalition Our Land Our Business denounced the World Bank’s March conference on land and poverty, condemning the Bank’s role in land grabs.
Featured briefings
1 October 2024
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.
3 July 2024
The Bretton Woods Observer: Summer 2024
3 July 2024
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.