In late August Colombian labour unions began an indefinite national strike in protest at the government’s political, social, and economic agenda and calling on the government to declare a moratorium on the payment of its internal and external debt.
Conditionality impacts
Environment
Analysis
World Bank and IMF: Dilemmas and Opportunities
Are the World Bank and IMF now taking environmental and social issues seriously?
Accountability
News
Curbing corruption
IMF policies have exacerbated corruption according to a Christian Aid briefing on new approaches to debt relief.
Conditionality
News
Forest conditionality explored
A new paper from the World Resources Institute examines the World Bank’s use of adjustment lending to promote policy reform for favourable environmental outcomes.
Conditionality
News
Initiative changes
The G7 have agreed changes to the Heavily Indebted Poor Country Debt Initiative which will impose more conditionality in return for earlier relief from interest payments.
Conditionality
News
Brazilians protest spending cuts
Brazilian NGOs, trade unions, students and opposition parties protested outside the World Bank’s office in Brasilia against the government’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank’s decision to suspend loans to two state governments.
Conditionality
Analysis
The “Perestroika Of Aid”? New Perspectives On Conditionality
This report considers the factors which have led to a proliferation of conditionality and the growing acceptance that it is not an effective tool for persuading governments to make reforms. It proposes that an alternative is to encourage “ownership” and to base lending agreements on “poverty focused” programmes developed at the national level (1999).
Conditionality
News
Selectivity: conditionality by any other name
Government officials met the World Bank in March to discuss new criteria for allocating its IDA (soft loan) resources among countries.
Finance
Analysis
Assessing Assessing Aid
A discussion and critique of the main points in a prominent World Bank report on aid policy and conditionality - “Assessing Aid, What Works, What Doesn’t and Why”. The Bank’s report is very frank about the many failures of aid financing, but its proposals of targeting finance to good performing countries are controversial (1999).
Conditionality
News
Brazil stabilisation means cuts for key donor projects
The IMF with multilateral banks and other donors has agreed a $41bn package to help Brazil fend off international currency speculators.
Featured briefings
21 July 2022
Ending “absolute immunity” for the International Finance Corporation: The legacy of Jam v. IFC
EarthRights International examines how the Jam v. IFC case has helped to shift the landscape of accountability for international financial institutions by successfully challenging their claim to “absolute” immunity in US courts, potentially opening IFC up to further legal challenges in future.
21 July 2022
The Bretton Woods Observer: Summer 2022
14 April 2022