Bretton Woods Project coverage of the 2013 annual meetings, including links to analysis and decoding of the communiqués as well as notes of some of the civil society and official meetings, as they become available.
Strategy/roles
IFI governance
Analysis
Annual meetings 2013: communiqués coverage
Detailed analysis of the communiqués from the 2013 World Bank and IMF annual meetings.
IFI governance
Background
World Bank Group strategy and reform process
Minutes from a World Bank sponsored event on the new World Bank Group strategy during the 2013 WB/IMF annual meetings.
IFI governance
Background
World Bank executive directors roundtable with CSOs
Tuesday 8 October 2013 Panelists: • Merza Hassan (WB Executive Director for Kuwait and Dean…
IFI governance
Background
UK civil society meeting with UK World Bank Executive Director Gwen Hines
The Bretton Woods Project convenes meetings with World Bank and IMF executive directors (EDs) several times a year. On 17 September the Project and civil society representatives met with Gwen Hines, the UK World Bank ED. Here are the notes from the meeting.
Rights
News
Update on the World Bank safeguards review
A July presentation on the safeguards review included parts of a proposed integrated framework and next steps. A July report by Human Rights Watch called on the Bank to ensure it does not contribute to human rights abuses.
IFI governance
Analysis
World Bank Group strategy: who benefits?
A new World Bank Group strategy will be signed off at the 2013 annual meetings. It prioritises greater use of the private sector and “transformational engagements”, but criticisms continue over the Bank’s desire to tell countries what to do.
Environment
Analysis
Foreclosing the future
Drawing on case studies, reports and evaluations, Bruce Rich paints a picture of a Bank still inflicting suffering on vulnerable populations, and calls on Bank president Jim Yong Kim to show real leadership so that the Bank can learn from experience rather than flee from it.
Accountability
News
World Bank-led Burundi coffee privatisation challenged on human rights grounds
In mid April two UN special rapporteurs raised the alarm about the World Bank-led privatisation of Burundi's coffee industry and called for suspension of the policy pending a full human rights-based impact assessment.
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
12 December 2024
The Bretton Woods Observer: Winter 2024
12 December 2024
Missing in action: accountability is noticeably absent from the World Bank Group’s new Corporate Scorecard
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.
16 October 2024