Talk of full multilateral debt cancellation has been in the air since the June G8 summit against the backdrop of the impending end of the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative. The US Treasury Department is apparently pushing for full multilateral debt cancellation and could announce this at the G8 ministers meeting ahead of the Bank and Fund annual meetings.
Debt
Conditionality
News
The Bank, the Fund, the debt threat
Researcher Noreena Hertz, in her latest book I.O.U: The debt threat and why we must…
Conditionality
News
Moving the goalposts: Zambia’s misery prolonged
Despite intensive efforts to implement the necessary conditions, Zambia has been told that it will have to wait even longer for debt relief.
Finance
News
Debt sustainability debates; new proposals for cancellation
Preliminary analysis of the Debt Sustainability framework, early June by US based CNES, points out that if implemented this proposal will emphasise the rights of creditors over all other development challenges, the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) included
Finance
News
Who will assess the assessments?
Civil society organizations remain concerned that impact assessments will not not deliver the desired outcomes.
Conditionality
News
Bank and Fund evaluation vindicates PRSP critics
The World Bank's Operations and Evaluation Department (OED) has just released the report of an evaluation they have conducted of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper approach.
Knowledge
News
New debt sustainability framework: too little, too subjective
Civil society groups welcome the intention but not the detail of a new IMF, World Bank framework for assessing countries’ debts and their potential to take on new lending.
Knowledge
News
New Bank adjustment policy a step backwards
The Bank has released a revised draft of its controversial 1992 structural adjustment policy. Comments…
Conditionality
Commentary
Lula and Kirchner want IMF to relax its grip
A new initiative to rewrite the rules of engagement with the IMF could mark the biggest change in creditor-debtor relations in a generation.
Rights
News
Iraq and Ethiopia treatment shows debt relief double standards
The differing treatment given to Ethiopia and Iraq in debt relief suggest that geopolitical considerations are again outweighing internationally agreed criteria for fair debt cancellation.
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