In mid April four independent advisers to the UN urged that all of the World Bank's activities should be included in the Bank's safeguards review to ensure consistency with international human rights standards.
Agriculture
Accountability
News
World Bank-led Burundi coffee privatisation challenged on human rights grounds
In mid April two UN special rapporteurs raised the alarm about the World Bank-led privatisation of Burundi's coffee industry and called for suspension of the policy pending a full human rights-based impact assessment.
Environment
Analysis
Working paper: The private sector and climate change adaptation
This paper looks at PPCR projects implemented under the World Bank's private sector lending arm, the International Finance Corporation, highlighting important questions concerning the design, implementation and operation of projects financed from public climate funds using private sector actors. In summary, the analysis suggests that the integration of private sector projects into national planning processes and strategies is crucial.
Land
Background
An update and briefing on the global agriculture and food security program (GAFSP)
World Bank briefing on the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) with a particular focus on recent private sector window projects.
Land
News
India complains Doing Business "not robust"
As an independent panel begun its review of the World Bank’s controversial Doing Business rankings, India’s public criticism of the rankings added weight to global governmental and civil society opposition.
Land
News
Growing Africa?
The Bank's continued enthusiasm for agribusiness was evident in its March report, Growing Africa, which highlighted the potential of the African agriculture sector, currently valued at $313 billion a year, to triple if governments and business leaders engage in radical policy reform and generate public private partnerships.
Accountability
News
Call for freeze on World Bank 'land grabs'
As Oxfam called on the World Bank to freeze large scale land acquisitions, the Bank's new agriculture strategy remained under wrap. Concerns have also been raised about ongoing initiatives on 'climate-smart agriculture' and the development of Doing Business in Agriculture.
Land
Background
Halting the global land rush: protecting land rights and promoting food security
This event discussed how to invest in agriculture in a responsible way, including research on the scale of the global rush for land, and explored potential solutions to the problem, including the role that the World Bank can and must play.
Infrastructure
Background
Water privatisation management issues
This session featured a discussion on the implications of current water policy reforms that have increasingly privatised and commodified water.
Accountability
News
IFC failed to act on "forced evictions"?
In August, the Compliance Advisor/Ombudsman (CAO), the accountability mechanism of the International Finance Corporation (IFC, the World Bank's private sector arm), launched an audit into its $30 million investment in palm oil and food company Corporaci
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.