Correspondence between the IEO and the Bretton Woods Project following the publication of its first report
Conditionality impacts
Conditionality
News
Conditionality through the back door?
’Streamlining’ of IMF conditionality failing expectations; cross-conditionality remains and the Fund has failed to debate the macro-economic framework.
Conditionality
News
Sri Lanka rushing reforms to please IMF, WB
Sri Lanka has launched a “fast-track” legislative process to intensify economic and social reforms, in order to secure new IMF and World Bank loans.
Land
News
IFI role in Southern Africa famine condemned
A new study from Oxfam questions why, after years of World Bank and IMF-designed agricultural sector reforms, Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique face chronic food insecurity.
Conditionality
News
Structural Adjustment: another flawed process?
The World Bank has issued a discussion paper for consultation before revising its operational directive on adjustment lending. On 18 July 2002 London was the first in a series of cities to host a consultation meeting. NGOs have raised concerns about the consultation process and the ability of the World Bank to learn lessons from the past on structural adjustment.
Conditionality
News
The IMF in Latin America: tough cop, social worker or skunk?
Three recent papers which attempt to analyse the IMF’s role in the Argentinean crisis are examined: ex-IMF senior economist Michael Mussa, the Center for Global Development’s Nancy Birdsall and Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Conditionality
News
Bank “cornering market” in trade capacity building
The Bank’s role in trade capacity building affords enormous influence over the hearts and minds of trade policy makers and the way in which trade is mainstreamed into national development plans. The initial experience of the Integrated Framework programme shows that there is reason for concern.
Knowledge
Analysis
Cornering the Market: The World Bank and trade capacity building
The Bank’s role in trade capacity building affords enormous influence over the hearts and minds of trade policy makers and the way in which trade is mainstreamed into national development plans. The initial experience of the Integrated Framework programme shows that there is reason for concern. (September 2002)
Conditionality
News
Rebranding adjustment: the World Bank and “development policy support lending”
The World Bank has issued a discussion paper for consultation before revising its operational directive on adjustment lending. Concerns over changes to the ceiling on policy-based lending and a shift towards less mandatory directives, as well as the conultation process itself, have been raised by NGOs.
Conditionality
News
IMF fiddles while Argentina burns
A synthesis of the last two months in the ongoing negotiations between the IMF and the Argentine government.
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.