An IFC-linked Vietnamese rubber plantation company agreed to temporarily suspend activities in three Cambodian plantations, but activists urged the company to cease its activities in all communities.
Land grabs
Private Sector
Analysis
IFC funding to financial intermediaries: unfit for purpose
An IFC investment in ANZ Royal Bank has been criticised after the bank was implicated in a “massive land grab” in Cambodia. Further cases from Guatemala and Honduras reinforce calls for IFC to rethink its investments in financial intermediaries.
Land
Analysis
Corporatising agriculture
World Bank’s Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture rankings are unlikely to benefit the world’s smallholder farmers, but could instead facilitate corporate land grabs.
Private Sector
News
Shopping mall Shangri-La: IFC’s lending for luxury
IFC investments in luxury hotels and shopping malls highlight projects with weak development outcomes.
Land
News
Complaint filed against IFC funded Lafarge mining operation
Khasi indigenous people in Indian state of Meghalaya have filed a complaint with the CAO over illegal land infringement by French multinational Lafarge's Bangladeshi cement plant.
Finance
Analysis
The IFIs in 2013: year in review
The Bretton Woods Project review of the most important developments at the World Bank and IMF in 2013.
Rights
Analysis
IFC fails to act on human rights abuses in Honduras
IFC accountability mechanism formally links World Bank client to human rights abuses on palm oil project in Honduras, and highlights systemic problems with IFC procedures.
Rights
Commentary
CSO response to the CAO investigation into IFC investment in Corporación Dinant, Honduras
An international statement, signed by 70 organisations, in response to the publication in mid January of a CAO audit and the IFC response and action plan related to IFC investment in Corporación Dinant, Honduras.
Land
News
World Bank push for agribusiness in Africa
A World Bank report on land governance has been criticised by NGOs. Meanwhile the Bank pushed ahead with the Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture initiative despite civil society concerns.
IFI governance
Analysis
Memorandum to the International Development Committee
In written evidence submitted to the UK parliament's International Development Committee, we argue that further reform of the World Bank is needed.
Featured briefings
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.
16 October 2024
Sustainable development requires sustainable finance: why local currency financing is part of the solution
Multilateral development banks can reduce their dependence on hard currency lending and make local currency financing a central element of their developmental mandate.