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.”
Anti-corruption
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.
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.
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.
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.
Environment
Commentary
World Bank's Africa strategy remains rutted in comfort zone
A critical analysis of the World Bank's new strategy for Africa
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".
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.
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.
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.