Evaluation

Accountability

News

Parliamentary committee scolds DFID for its World Bank infatuation

The UK's International Development Committee has sharply reprimanded the Department for International Development for its decision to hand over a fifty per cent increase in funding for the World Bank without sufficient analysis of whether or not this is good value for money.

5 March 2008

Accountability

Analysis

The IFIs in 2007: year in review

2007 will certainly go down in the annals of the IFIs as an annus horribilis. But a bad year for the IFIs has meant a relatively good year for developing country policy space.

4 February 2008 | Review

IFI governance

News

IMF conditionality high, effectiveness low

A report by the IMF’s evaluation arm faulted the Fund’s overuse of structural conditionality and partially blamed donors for the problem, but civil society critics of conditionality are not satisfied with the scope of the report or the changes accepted by the Fund.

1 February 2008

Accountability

News

Public campaigns to reform IDA

In Europe, Asia and the United States, civil society has campaigned for reform of the World Bank through the replenishment process of the International Development Association.

4 December 2007

IFI governance

News

Ungovernable debate over Fund governance reform

With the wait for new leadership at the IMF over and the deadline for a deal on quota reform looming, the hard bargaining over power at the Fund will now begin. Still no end to European dominance of the institution is in site.

4 December 2007

IFI governance

News

Questioning the IFC's impact "without embarrassment"

In August, the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) released its evaluation of the development results of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), finding that of the 627 projects surveyed, 59 per cent are claimed to have achieved a high development rating.

5 October 2007

IFI governance

News

What will Zoellick's World Bank look like?

With an increasing number of commentators asking whether and how the World Bank can remain relevant, chief economist Francois Bourguignon unveiled a draft overview of a 'long-term strategic exercise', and the IEG released an evaluation of the Bank's work in middle-income countries.

5 October 2007

IFI governance

News

Bank replicates past hydropower mistakes?

Concerns raised about the Nam Theun 2 dam in Lao PDR, the Bujagali dam in Uganda and the Inga dam in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) suggest that the Bank may be replicating past mistakes in the flagship projects of its new generation of 'high-risk high-reward' hydropower.

2 July 2007

IFI governance

News

Heated exchanges over exchange rates

The IMF executive board agreed to revise the legal framework for bilateral surveillance in June with the final text incorporating many of the safeguards demanded by developing countries but still angering the Chinese.

2 July 2007

IFI governance

News

Regional programmes do not address underlying reforms: evaluation

In April, the Independent Evaluation Group released its first-ever review of the Bank's support for regional programmes, covering the period 1995 - 2005.

2 July 2007