Notes of a consultation between IMF staff and NGOs in advance of the PSI review
Aid
Finance
News
Europe questions IFIs on conditionality: whose outcome?
A new report shows that IMF structural conditionality did not decline in the five years after the approval of the Fund’s conditionality guidelines. With little progress at the World Bank, many wonder whether a new approach is needed.
Accountability
News
Calls for Bank to uphold human rights
As the UN human rights council holds its seventh session in Geneva in March, a variety of recent reports calling for greater human rights accountability of the World Bank have been published.
Finance
News
IFC challenges highlighted in the Middle East
The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, is rapidly increasing its investment in the Middle East, raising questions about the development value of its activities. A Norwegian study of the IFC's Doing Business indicators questions the usefulness of the index to making real-life improvements to a country's business environment.
Accountability
News
World Bank and procurement: Development tool or TNC sop?
A new study on the Bank's push for procurement reform suggests that a narrow focus on value for money may undermine the ability of governments to use procurement as a tool for development; meanwhile US and European corporate lobbyists continue to pressure the Bank to go slow on the use of developing countries' own procurement systems.
IFI governance
News
Bank both player and referee in road to Accra
On aid effectiveness the World Bank is both player and referee, prompting cries of foul play by civil society groups.
Accountability
News
Parliamentary committee scolds DFID for its World Bank infatuation
The UK's International Development Committee has sharply reprimanded the Department for International Development for its decision to hand over a fifty per cent increase in funding for the World Bank without sufficient analysis of whether or not this is good value for money.
Finance
News
IMF humiliates Bangladeshi officials over tax law
The Dhaka-based New Nation newspaper reports in January that the IMF has over stepped its bounds in trying to convince the government to reform its tax policy.
Finance
News
Donor contributions to IDA up record amount
Despite evidence that it has failed to end the practice of forcing policy reforms on recipient countries, the World Bank will collect a record $41.6 billion for its low-income arm, the International Development Association.
IFI governance
News
IMF conditionality high, effectiveness low
A report by the IMF’s evaluation arm faulted the Fund’s overuse of structural conditionality and partially blamed donors for the problem, but civil society critics of conditionality are not satisfied with the scope of the report or the changes accepted by the Fund.
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.