UN releases Guiding Principles on human rights impact assessments of economic reforms, begging the question of how the IMF will respond.
Human rights
Rights
News
World Bank investment in Paraguayan cattle industry linked to human rights violations and environmental harm
Report links IFC to environmental harm and human rights violations resulting from cattle industry expansion in Paraguay.
Rights
News
Civil society calls for more protection of human rights defenders in development as IFC publishes position
Defenders in Development Campaign welcomes IFC’s position on retaliation against human rights defenders in development but call for more specific actions
Rights
News
CSOs express concern about IMF’s “strongly divergent” social protection approach
Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors submits letter to the IMF expressing concerns about impacts of Fund's policies on social protection.
Gender
News
#MeToo arrives at World Bank as it publishes Gender-Based Violence Action Plan
World Bank publishes GBV Action Plan for developing-country projects, while internal sexual harassment cases from 1980s are brought to World Bank Ombudsman.
Rights
News
AIMM: Will IFC hit rights-based development target?
CSOs call on IFC to ensure new AIMM development impact framework includes human rights-based methodology and applies to entire portfolio.
Rights
News
CAO released damning audit of IFC hydro project in Guatemala
CAO audit finds IFC failed to identify gaps in project’s social and environmental assessment, while communities impacted by the project face impacts on water source, livelihoods and levels of violence.
Rights
Analysis
Civil society still waiting for ‘IMF Spring’ to blossom
Civil society was out in full force during annual meetings challenging the IMF’s claims that it is reducing economic and gender inequality.
Rights
News
Indian plaintiffs seek US Supreme Court review of IFC's “absolute immunity”
Indian fishing communities and farmers will ask the highest court in the US to rule on IFC's immunity for its role in the controversial Tata Mundra coal-fired power plant in India.
Rights
Analysis
UN Independent Expert reports on World Bank and IMF human rights performance
UN Independent Expert publishes two reports on the World Bank and IMF human rights performance, finding the institutions must be more than a "fig leaf" for the status quo and step up their human rights commitments.
Featured briefings
4 April 2019
World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings 2019
4 April 2019
The Bretton Woods Observer: Spring 2019
11 March 2019
Gender Just-Macroeconomics II
BWP's Gender and Macroeconomics project launches a booklet on Gender-Just Macroeconomics; the World Bank’s privatisation push