Notes from the virtual Civil Society Policy Forum at the 2020 World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings 5 October session on the World Bank's 'Maximizing Finance for Development' and the Covid-19 response.
Health
Finance
News
World Bank pandemic bond instrument fails in COVID-19 response
World Bank's ‘innovative’ health financing instrument proved to be slow and late.
Conditionality
Background
Fiscal space for universal health and social protection post Covid-19 pandemic: How to prevent austerity
Notes from the Civil Society Policy Forum Session on 2 October.
Finance
Analysis
The IMF and World Bank-led Covid-19 recovery: ‘Building back better’ or locking in broken policies?
Early evidence suggests IMF programmes are maintaining long-term fiscal consolidation targets, while World Bank further continues Maximizing Finance for Development narrative amidst Covid-19 crisis.
Conditionality
Analysis
The IMF’s role in the devastating impacts of Covid-19 – the case of Ecuador
IMF-backed austerity measures starved health sector prior to pandemic, yet Fund continues to prescribe devastating long-term fiscal consolidation.
Social services
Analysis
World Bank undermines right to universal healthcare
The IFC’s push for the PPP model, as well as its preference for healthcare ‘provision’ and the results-based payment approach, collectively undermine the human right to universal healthcare and the achievement of the SDGs.
Social services
Background
Leveraging Private Sector Engagement in Health: Maximizing or Obstructing Progress towards Universal Health Coverage?
Notes from CSPF on 18 October on the growing trend of directing public finance to support business in healthcare.
Social services
Analysis
GFF falls short on family planning
Investments by the World Bank-hosted Global Financing Facility (GFF) do not reflect the family planning priorities identified by developing countries and local communities. The GFF also continues to suffer from a lack of transparency and meaningful civil society participation, raising doubts about the new mechanism’s effectiveness.
Social services
News
World Bank’s “wakeup call” on universal health
New World Bank report shows lack of access to basic health services has pushed six per cent of the global population into poverty, as the IFC continues to support private health providers.
IFI governance
Background
Ebola debt relief – Implications and next steps
Notes from a meeting on Ebola during the World Bank spring meetings.
Featured briefings
6 April 2023
World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings 2023
5 April 2023
The IMF at the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: The need for governance reform
As the world celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is time the IMF’s shareholders use the opportunities provided by the anniversary and growing calls for reforms to the international financial architecture to redesign the IMF’s governance structures and programmes to ensure they are consistent with the commitments outlined in 1948 and with international human rights law.
5 April 2023
The global financial architecture and the international debt crisis: An urgent call for reform
Influence of unreformed international financial institutions and creditor interests in debt solutions in low- and middle-income countries plagued by delay and ineffective when undertaken.