As the World Bank held its Annual Conference on Land and Poverty in April, campaigners accused it once again of facilitating and legitimising 'land grabs' that harm local communities.
Land grabs
Accountability
Commentary
Accountability squandered?
Despite a 2011 victory in Cambodia, where a mass eviction in the centre of Phnom Penh was halted and remaining affected families finally gained legal title to the land they had been wrongly denied under a World Bank project, recent arrests have put justice in jeopardy and led to calls for a continued lending freeze by the Bank.
Land
News
World Bank's land policies under fire
In February about 200 people from across Asia demonstrated outside the World Bank office in Bangkok to highlight the failure of the Responsible Agricultural Investment (RAI) principles, co-authored by the Bank, to protect small farmers
Land
Background
Notes of meeting between Stewart James, Alternate UK Executive Director to the World Bank, and NGOs
Civil society organisations met UK Executive Director to the World Bank and staff from the Department for International Development to discuss agriculture, land grabs, food security, the safeguards review process, the selection of the next World Bank president, the doing business indicators, and the debt sustainability framework.
Accountability
News
Harvesting controversy
While the Bank prepares to revise its agriculture strategy, its focus on market liberalisation is criticised, its own complaints bodies issue damning reports on agriculture projects in Peru and Papua New Guinea, and critics fault its gender focus.
Environment
Background
Safeguards and climate finance in Indonesia in the context of REDD+
Notes of meeting, Washington DC, September 23, 2011
Rights
News
Community files complaint against IFC in Papua New Guinea
The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman (CAO) of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the World Bank's private sector arm, has accepted a complaint by local communities in Papua New Guinea referring to the IFC's role in advising the government on drawing up laws for special economic zones (SEZs).
Land
News
World Bank policies "enabling" African land grab
New research claims World Bank Group's policies facilitate land grabs in Africa and favour the interests of financial markets over food security and environmental protection.
Environment
Commentary
World Bank's Africa strategy remains rutted in comfort zone
A critical analysis of the World Bank's new strategy for Africa
Land
News
Unease over Bank approach to global food crisis
NGO criticism of the World Bank's market-based approach to the global food crisis, particularly with regard to foreign agricultural investment, increased in recent months, while the Bank reiterated its existing position in April meetings.
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A way out for IMF reform
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