Bank and Fund staff have complained that the Joint IMF-World Bank Implementation Committee (JIC), which has been established to coordinate work on the Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) Initiative and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) program is just “political whitewash”.
Debt
Finance
News
Bank Report Counters Globalization Critics
In April the World Bank launched a new briefing Assessing Globalization, examining the implications of international trade for poverty, inequality and the environment.
Finance
News
IMF “Lending Into Arrears” In Ecuador
The new IMF policy of “lending into arrears”, that is lending to countries in financial crisis with debts owing to the private sector, has been applied to Ecuador.
Finance
News
Millennium Lottery
A new report from Christian Aid, Millennium Lottery, Who Lives, Who Dies in an Age of Third World Debt, looks at how debt and structural adjustment hinders development through the lens of health in Africa.
Finance
News
Countries embark on PRSP process
Bolivia is the first country to have produced an Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which has qualified it for the enhanced HIPC Initiative debt relief.
Finance
News
Ecuador crisis leads to indigenous peoples’ uprising
In January, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), and other social movements led an uprising in protest at the worsening economic situation which resulted in the resignation of the president, Jamil Mahuad.
Rights
News
Jakarta activists call for local initiatives
NGO activists in Jakarta wrote an open letter to World Bank President James Wolfensohn in February, asking him to meet directly with the people to hear their own solutions to reverse Indonesia’s economic decline based on small-scale, local initiatives.
Finance
News
Mozambican NGO rejects Bank emergency lending
The Mozambican Debt Group (MDG) has protested against the one-year moratorium on Mozambican debt service payments granted by the World Bank in response to the devastation caused by the worst floods experienced by the country, and against the Bank providing loans to support emergency efforts.
Conditionality
News
UK ED quizzed on UK role in Bank and Fund
In October UK Executive Director Stephen Pickford was called before the Treasury and International Development Select Committees for questioning by MPs.
Conditionality
News
Southern organisations demand end to adjustment
Organizations and activists in more than 20 Southern countries have launched a campaign against the destructive lending policies of the World Bank.