Civil society questions the proposed expansion of the Cascade approach, which has failed to deliver the ‘trillions’ promised.
Strategy/roles
IFI governance
News
Banga's arrival raises concerns about deepening of World Bank's private sector bias
Banga takes office as civil society urges him to invert the Cascade and ensure the Bank’s development model is fit for purpose.
IFI governance
Analysis
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.
Knowledge
Analysis
Death of Doing Business Report greatly exaggerated as World Bank announces rebranding plans
World Bank announces relaunch of Doing Business Report in approximately two years.
IFI governance
News
World Bank appoints Indermit Gill as new chief economist
Gill replaces Carmen Reinhart as she returns to Harvard after a two-year public service leave from the institution.
Finance
Background
What are Special Drawing Rights (SDRs)?
This Inside the Institutions looks at the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights, including their history and usage, with a focus on the latest allocation, which accounts for 69 per cent of the SDRs ever disbursed.
IFI governance
Background
Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency – the Bank’s foreign direct investment insurance arm
MIGA principally provides political risk insurance for private investors undertaking foreign direct investment.
IFI governance
Analysis
Gambling with our lives: Global emergencies expose consequences of decades of IMF and World Bank policies
Market-led policy approaches increasingly used to deal with both climate and health emergencies are failing to protect those most vulnerable.
IFI governance
Analysis
Biden, the Bank and IMF: A break with ‘America first’ or its continued pursuit through multilateral means?
The world awaits to see whether Trump’s defeat will result in the end of the 'America First' approach and a democratisation of the IMF and World Bank and the multilateral system.
IFI governance
Analysis
The Bank and IMF in 2017: Year in Review
While the Fund and Bank defended trade and globalisation, their rhetoric focused on the perils of inequality and need for inclusive growth
Featured briefings
27 September 2023
Financialisation and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa
This briefing explains how the IMF and World Bank have driven the financialisation of MENA states, and the pervasive negative effects this has had on the region’s societies and economies.
19 July 2023
The Bretton Woods Observer: Summer 2023
3 July 2023
Civil Society calls for rethink of World Bank’s ‘evolution roadmap’ as part of wider reforms to highly unequal global financial architecture
Joint civil society briefing paper highlights concerns with the World Bank’s Evolution Roadmap, and provides a series of recommendations for a Roadmap that prioritises people, participation and the planet over profit and economic growth.