Anti-corruption

Accountability

News

World Bank revising governance and anti-corruption strategy

The Bank has opened an online consultation on proposed revisions to its governance and anticorruption strategy, which “will redefine and re-position its governance and anti-corruption work.”

7 February 2012

Accountability

News

The World Bank and extractives: a rich seam of controversy

As World Bank projects fail to reduce corruption in the mining sector in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), International Financial Corporation (IFC) investments in extractives are provoking complaints and protests around the world.

7 February 2012

Accountability

News

Tribunal increases protection for World Bank whistleblowers

In June the World Bank Administrative Tribunal, an internal justice body that oversees the treatment of employees, ordered the Bank to reinstate a former staff member, John Kim, who was fired in 2007 for telling a journalist about conflicts between former Bank president Paul Wolfowitz and the Bank's board of directors.

14 September 2011

Accountability

News

South African loan to Swaziland hinges on IMF conditions

The crisis-hit government of Swaziland agreed a 2.4 billion rand ($324 million) loan from South Africa in August, which will be conditioned on the adoption of IMF-recommended fiscal reforms.

14 September 2011

Accountability

News

IEG annual report slates World Bank's education work

The Bank's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) released its annual report at end August, again finding shortfalls and uneven results across the World Bank Group. While the Bank's leadership has steered the institution towards more private sector work, outcomes in the education sector and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have dropped substantially.

13 September 2011

Environment

Commentary

World Bank's Africa strategy remains rutted in comfort zone

A critical analysis of the World Bank's new strategy for Africa

14 June 2011 | Guest comment

Accountability

News

World Bank safeguards and independent scrutiny at risk?

Civil society groups have challenged Bank plans to rush through a new lending instrument, Program-for-Results, that would mean safeguards or equivalent standards no longer apply to a major portion of Bank lending. Meanwhile, a secretive review could strip the Bank's accountability bodies of their independence and safeguards could be scaled back for projects deemed "low risk".

5 April 2011

Accountability

News

World Bank launches new Africa strategy

In March, the World Bank launched its new Africa strategy, outlining three main areas in which it will focus its operations: competitiveness and employment, vulnerability and resilience of citizens, and governance and public sector capacity.

5 April 2011

Accountability

News

Unprecedented ruling on IFC immunity

Ghana's Supreme Court ruled in January that the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Bank's private sector lending arm, is not immune from legal action in the country.

17 February 2011

Accountability

Background

The IFI's approach to tax avoidance and evasion

The World Bank and the IMF formally recognise tax avoidance and evasion as a critical problem for developing countries' domestic resource mobilisation. The Bank's public position on tax evasion and tax havens does not however identify concrete measures to stop investing in companies practicing tax avoidance. The IMF addresses tax policy under its surveillance mandate and in its technical assistance, but does not have an explicit framework to deal with tax evasion.

17 February 2011 | Inside the institutions