Fishing and farming communities from Gujarat, India, has filed a lawsuit against the International Financial Corporation.
Agriculture
Land
News
Call on World Bank to stop Uzbekistan loans
The World Bank has been called on to postpone two proposed loans to the agricultural sector in Uzbekistan, given the risks of forced and child labour.
Environment
Analysis
Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR)
The Pilot Program for Climate Resilience has invited new countries apply for participation and is also expanding the private sector set-aside to non-PPCR countries. Biodiversity and gender impacts were questioned on a Grenada project and the gender focus on a Haiti project.
Land
Analysis
Will the World Bank get truly climate smart?
World Bank is criticised for focusing on climate-smart agriculture, including industrial approaches, instead of more sustainable agroecological approaches.
Land
News
World Bank targeted over role in land grabs
As activists staged global protests highlighting the potential damage from new World Bank agriculture rankings, Cambodian groups expressed concerns over reports that the Bank is considering resuming loans to Cambodia.
Land
Analysis
Corporatising agriculture
World Bank’s Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture rankings are unlikely to benefit the world’s smallholder farmers, but could instead facilitate corporate land grabs.
Land
News
IFC criticised for bad smell of Ukraine loan
An IFC loan to Danish pig farming company in Ukraine has resulted in a complaint to the Compliance Advisor Ombudsdman because of the air pollution and harm to local people's health.
IFI governance
Background
CSO roundtable with World Bank Group executive directors
Sponsor: World Bank Group Panelists: Merza Hassan (Executive Director for Kuwait, and Dean of the…
Private Sector
Analysis
IFC funding to financial intermediaries: unfit for purpose
An IFC investment in ANZ Royal Bank has been criticised after the bank was implicated in a “massive land grab” in Cambodia. Further cases from Guatemala and Honduras reinforce calls for IFC to rethink its investments in financial intermediaries.
Land
News
World Bank and agriculture: Cultivating controversy?
The World Bank’s push for ‘climate-smart agriculture’, including a new joint initiative, was criticised by CSOs. An Inspection Panel case on forced labour in Uzbekistan cotton fields was postponed for up to 12 months.
Featured briefings
16 October 2024
The Bretton Woods Observer: Autumn 2024
16 October 2024
The lost call for international financial architecture reform in the G20
At the 80th anniversary of the World Bank and IMF, global civil society must maintain pressure on the Brazilian and South African G20 presidencies to ensure the forth Financing for Development Conference in 2025 results in urgently required international financial architecture reform.
16 October 2024
Sustainable development requires sustainable finance: why local currency financing is part of the solution
Multilateral development banks can reduce their dependence on hard currency lending and make local currency financing a central element of their developmental mandate.