2004 was a bumper year for new acronyms from the masters of the art form. But three new outstanding additions deserve special mention.
Conditionality impacts
Conditionality
News
IMF: you don’t need no education
Research by ActionAid International finds that IMF polices present the biggest obstacle to attaining global goals for education.
Environment
Background
UK NGO meeting with Executive Director Tom Scholar
Uncorrected highlights of a 14 December meeting between UK NGOs and UK Executive Director to the World Bank and IMF, Tom Scholar.
Conditionality
Analysis
The World Bank policy scorecard: The new conditionality?
The World Bank scorecard on borrowing country policies and institutions plays a key role in the allocation of overseas development assistance. Critics argue that the scorecard is a way to coerce borrowers into adopting the Bank's preferred model of economic development.
Social services
News
Fund irate over NGO claims that it blocks progress on AIDS
A report released by NGOs ActionAid, Global AIDS Alliance, Student Global AIDs Campaign and RESULTS Educational Fund charges that IMF fiscal targets limit spending on HIV/AIDS programmes.
Conditionality
News
NGOs respond to UK paper on conditionality
Released late September to coincide with the Bank and Fund annual meetings, the paper sets out the "UK government position on the use of conditions in effective partnerships for poverty reduction". Public comment is invited until the end of November and by early 2005 new guidelines for DFID staff are anticipated to put the new approach into practice
Conditionality
News
UK MPs hold hearing on World Bank, IMF
In November the UK International Development Committee held its annual evidence session on the World Bank and IMF, questioning the UK government on issues including conditionality and parliamentary scrutiny of national development strategies.
Environment
Background
Meeting between UK NGOs and Secretary of State, Hilary Benn
Summary of key points discussed at the meeting on 20 September between Secretary of State Hilary Benn, and UK NGOs
Environment
Background
Meeting with UK Executive Director to the WB and IMF, Tom Scholar
Meeting with UK Executive Director to the WB and IMF, Tom Scholar, Annual Meetings 2004, 14 September
Knowledge
Background
The Reality of Aid 2004: Report on Governance and Rights
This year's Reality of Aid report focuses on Governance and Human Rights in International Cooperation. It was produced by a global network of civil society organizations from both the north and south. The report calls for all actors in the global aid regime to entrench the discourse of human rights in international cooperation.
Featured briefings
12 December 2024
The Bretton Woods Observer: Winter 2024
12 December 2024
Missing in action: accountability is noticeably absent from the World Bank Group’s new Corporate Scorecard
The Corporate Scorecard’s accountability gap is symptomatic of a broader failure on the part of the WBG to fully internalise, integrate and learn from the work of its accountability mechanisms.
16 October 2024