2004 was a bumper year for new acronyms from the masters of the art form. But three new outstanding additions deserve special mention.
Indigenous peoples
Land
News
IFC funds Amazon deforestation, undermines safeguard policies
Brazilian and international NGOs charge that IFC-funded soy and cattle projects in the Amazon further deforestation, ignore social and environmental risks and contradict World Bank policy.
Environment
News
West Africa gas pipeline approved
The World Bank's board of directors recently approved an investment guarantee for the US$590 million West Africa gas pipeline (WAGP)
Environment
News
Consultation extended for IFC safeguard review: doubts remain
World Bank environmental and social safeguard policies have long been a subject of contention. The Bank has now begun to shift from "explicit, mandatory policies, to which it can be held accountable, to flexible principles or national standards, permitting the investor and/or the borrowing government to determine the project's social and environmental requirements". This is illustrated most clearly by the on-going reviews of the IFC's Safeguard Policies and World Bank's Country Systems.
Environment
Background
UK NGO meeting with Executive Director Tom Scholar
Uncorrected highlights of a 14 December meeting between UK NGOs and UK Executive Director to the World Bank and IMF, Tom Scholar.
Rights
News
Groups attack World Bank standards
More than 200 civil society organisations and socially responsible investors called on the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, to protect the interests of the poorest and the public when setting rules governing global private investment
Rights
News
World Bank accountability: demand for reparations won't go away
In 1982 more than 400 Maya Ach
Environment
News
Coal India: Rehabilitation claims linger on unaddressed
The central argument put forward by proponents of the World Bank's involvement in oil, gas and mining projects is that the Bank's presence ensures compliance with higher environmental and social standards than would be the case without its involvement. However, the case of Coal India - an open-pit coal mine in Jharkand state - casts serious doubt on this argument.
Land
News
IFC-funded goldmine shut down by local protest
Following two weeks of protests and road blocks that shut down the city of Cajamarca…
Accountability
News
Private sector safeguard review continues despite boycotts
Civil society organisations globally have stepped up their campaign against the International Finance Corporation's process to overhaul its safeguard policies.
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.