The Corporate Scorecard’s accountability gap is symptomatic of a broader failure on the part of the WBG to fully internalise, integrate and learn from the work of its accountability mechanisms.
IFI Lending
Conditionality
Analysis
Who’s afraid of the grassroots? IMF policymaking in the era of social discontent
IMF proposes a grassroots communication strategy to convince the public of the need for further austerity measures as publications reveal fear that social unrest will make reforms ‘unimplementable’.
IFI governance
News
New report debunks claims that inadequate MDB transparency results from private sector concerns
Amid underwhelming private capital mobilisation, new report underscores poor state of transparency and disclosure of private sector finance by multilateral development banks and development finance institutions.
Finance
News
IMF’s PRGT review places the burden of financing the program on low-income countries
As the IMF increases cost of lending for LICs by introducing a tiered interest mechanism to the PRGT, CSOs and V20 Group call instead for an SDR interest rate cap to reduce the cost of lending and for sale of gold reserves to address the funding gap.
Finance
News
BWIs use frozen Russian assets as part of $50 billion support to Ukraine
BWIs engineer creative ways to provide financial support to Ukraine using frozen Russian assets as back up, in contrast to lack of support for debt-stricken African countries.
Finance
News
High stakes for December’s IDA21 pledging meeting
The replenishment process for IDA21 concludes in early December, amid hopes of a record replenishment and concerns over the global debt crisis.
Conditionality
Analysis
Kenya's growing youth movement for fiscal justice rejects IMF-mandated austerity
Youth-led led protests lead to withdrawal of controversial finance bill by President William Ruto.
Finance
News
Project 2025 takes on the World Bank and IMF – harbinger of an uncertain new era of geopolitics?
US conservative blueprint for second Trump term calls for US to withdraw from World Bank and IMF, amid continued geopolitical tensions and unresolved debt crisis in Global South.
Conditionality
Commentary
Economics is political: the IMF’s programme in Egypt can’t succeed without reforming both
More debt without tackling the political sources of Egypt’s economic problems means a deepening of the crisis.
Finance
News
Biden administration signals additional funding for World Bank and IMF
New financing for the IMF and World Bank proposed by the US will not fix the flawed private sector development paradigm that burdens Global South economies with debt.
Featured briefings
12 December 2024
The Bretton Woods Observer: Winter 2024
16 October 2024
The Bretton Woods Observer: Autumn 2024
16 October 2024
The lost call for international financial architecture reform in the G20
At the 80th anniversary of the World Bank and IMF, global civil society must maintain pressure on the Brazilian and South African G20 presidencies to ensure the forth Financing for Development Conference in 2025 results in urgently required international financial architecture reform.