In September US Treasury Secretary, Paul O’Neill, told the Senate Banking Committee that he would favour establishment of an international bankruptcy law as an alternative to IMF bailouts.
Debt
Finance
News
HIPC not delivering debt relief
The Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative is failing to deliver debt relief, reports the Financial Times (9/10/01).
Rights
News
IFIs must respect human rights
The World Bank and the IMF are bound by obligations enshrined in international human rights covenants, and must incorporate human rights considerations in the formulation and review of their Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs).
Finance
News
Will grants kill IDA?
Heated debate is brewing between the US government which proposes that the Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) should provide up to 50 per cent of its resources as grants and some European governments (supported by the Bank) who argue that to do so would deplete IDA’s resources.
Conditionality
News
Argentina to be sacrificed on free-market altar?
In August, Argentinian teachers, doctors and public workers went on strike and unemployed workers and students blocked roads to protest against rising unemployment and cuts in pensions and salaries.
Finance
News
African leaders speak out against donors
At a forum in Lagos Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo accused the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and creditor nations of being unfair to developing countries trying to repay crippling external debts, reports Reuters (17/5/01).
Finance
News
IMF and WB wanted for fraud
Protesters carrying placards proclaiming “Africa Needs Liberation Not Charity” and “the Debt is a Fraud” gathered outside World Bank offices in London on 26 May to mark African Liberation Day.
Finance
News
Reality check on debt
A new report from Drop the Debt argues that the World Bank and IMF can afford to cancel in full the debts of the poorest countries without putting at risk their finances.
Rights
News
Financial crises and global slowdown capture IMF-World Bank spring meetings agenda
The global economic slowdown and donor countries’ differing views on what to do about it, pushed issues related to the world’s poorest nations to the sidelines of public debate on this year’s spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank.
Finance
News
Africans query World Bank, IMF governance mantra
A week-long “listening tour” brought World Bank President James Wolfensohn and IMF Managing Director Horst K
Featured briefings
27 September 2023
Financialisation and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa
This briefing explains how the IMF and World Bank have driven the financialisation of MENA states, and the pervasive negative effects this has had on the region’s societies and economies.
19 July 2023
The Bretton Woods Observer: Summer 2023
3 July 2023
Civil Society calls for rethink of World Bank’s ‘evolution roadmap’ as part of wider reforms to highly unequal global financial architecture
Joint civil society briefing paper highlights concerns with the World Bank’s Evolution Roadmap, and provides a series of recommendations for a Roadmap that prioritises people, participation and the planet over profit and economic growth.