In an article for UK newspaper The Guardian, Elizabeth Arend of international NGO Gender Action questioned the World Bank's status as a "global leader" in reproductive health.
Health
Social services
News
World Bank-funded "toxic dumping ground"
Ugandan newspaper New Vision called attention to the "horrific sanitation conditions" of a Bank-funded waterway in Uganda in November 2011
Social services
News
World Bank loans linked to child mortality
A June 2011 academic paper that analysed health outcomes in Sub-Saharan Africa found that "when a country is under a World Bank structural adjustment loan it tends to have higher levels of child mortality".
Social services
News
IMF's focus on austerity proved "wrong, wrong, wrong", say critics
While Christine Lagarde and staff at the Fund begin to acknowledge that too much austerity is risking jobs and growth and civil society groups call for an end to IFIs policy conditions, IMF programmes continue to promote fiscal retrenchment.
Accountability
Background
Notes of meeting between UK Executive Director to World Bank and Civil Society Groups
Civil society organisations met UK Executive Director to the World Bank and staff from the Department for International Development to discuss water, the Bank's private sector approach, health and nutrition, safeguards review and energy strategy.
Finance
News
UK announces priorities for World Bank
In August the UK released its priorities for reform of the World Bank.
Accountability
News
IEG annual report slates World Bank's education work
The Bank's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) released its annual report at end August, again finding shortfalls and uneven results across the World Bank Group. While the Bank's leadership has steered the institution towards more private sector work, outcomes in the education sector and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region have dropped substantially.
Finance
News
World Bank admits failures in East Timor
In April the Independent Evaluation Group (IEG), the Bank's arms-length evaluation body, released a critical report assessing Bank operations in East Timor from 2000 to 2010.
Accountability
Background
Notes of meeting between UK Executive Director to World Bank and Civil Society Groups
Civil society organisations met UK Executive Director to the World Bank and staff from the Department for International Development to discuss the World Development Report on conflict, security and development; the spring meetings and food security; the World Bank's energy strategy and performance in the health sector.
Accountability
News
UK reviews of World Bank paint a mixed picture
The UK government's review of multilateral aid endorsed the World Bank, despite identifying major institutional weaknesses.
Featured briefings
1 October 2024
Year one of World Bank Paris Agreement alignment in the energy sector: ‘green conditionality’ dwarfs green investments
New BWP research finds the Word Bank's approach to Paris alignment is being used to a significant extent to impose ‘green conditionalities' on borrowing countries, especially in the Global South.
3 July 2024
The Bretton Woods Observer: Summer 2024
3 July 2024
Is the World Bank rolling back commitments to citizen engagement, again?
Understanding the Bank’s chequered history with public, community and civil society participation is key for understanding what is at stake and what to do next.