The World Bank president has asked his staff to prepare a human rights strategy, ending a long-standing aversion to engaging in the debate. But how far can the Bank go when its board and legal staff are urging extreme caution?
Conflict
Accountability
News
ABCDcEnsure
A study arguing against a link between terrorism and poverty was pulled at the last minute from the agenda of the Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics in response to complaints from a Kuwaiti Executive Director.
Accountability
News
Doing well out of war
The importance of economic agendas in contemporary conflicts has been the focus of a series of recent papers by Paul Collier, Director of the Bank’s Development Research Group.
Accountability
News
World Bank role in Afghanistan unclear
After the first two donor conferences on the reconstruction of Afghanistan - in Islamabad in November and in Brussels in December - some people worry that reconstruction funds could easily be misused and fuel continued civil strife.
Accountability
News
World Bank-led meeting on Afghanistan causes concern in Pakistan
By Shahid Husain, Freelance journalist, Karachi, and Charlotte Carlsson, Communications & research officer, Bretton Woods Project
Accountability
News
After 11 September: Towards a new multilateralism?
The implications for the World Bank and IMF of the 11 September atrocities and their aftermath are as yet uncertain.
Accountability
News
Carrots, sticks and ethnic conflict
How do donor resources, policy advice and conditions attached to aid affect ethnic conflict? International donor interventions are explored by Milton Esman and Ronald Herring of Cornell University in their new book Carrots, Sticks and Ethnic Conflict: Rethinking Development Assistance.
Accountability
News
Conflict/Crisis Policies Debated
The Post-Conflict Unit of the World Bank seeks comments/critiques from NGOs, UN agencies and others on its draft operational policy and bank procedures for war-torn areas.
Accountability
News
UK committee criticises Bank and Fund over conflict roles
The UK International Development Select Committee of MPs has criticised the IMF and Bank for failing to raise concerns with the Rwandan government about the discrimination and intimidation of Tutsis prior to the civil war.
Accountability
News
Post-crisis social code diluted to weak Bank principles
There is danger that the aims and scope of the social principles (formerly the Social Code), which was proposed by Gordon Brown as a fourth pillar of the new international architecure, will be watered down to become simply a framework for the Bank’s social policy.
Featured briefings
12 October 2020
World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings 2020
6 October 2020
The Bretton Woods Observer: Autumn 2020
6 October 2020
Repairing harm caused: What could a reparations approach mean for the IMF and World Bank?
It is time for the IMF and World Bank to understand their own responsibility and decolonise their approach.