Former Mexican deputy finance minister Alejandro Werner is to head the IMF's Western Hemisphere department overseeing Latin America.
Voting rights
IFI governance
News
World Bank accused of racial discrimination
An online petition launched by an international group of current and former Bank staffers, justice for blacks, calls upon Human Rights Watch, the Bank’s governing board and the US government to investigate the Bank’s flagrant inability to uphold its policy of “zero-tolerance policy for discrimination”.
IFI governance
News
"Cosmetic" changes to IMF governance
The IMF is about to embark on a new round of negotiations over governance reform, but acrimony persists and already-agreed changes remain unimplemented.
Accountability
Background
World Bank corporate scorecard
Every six months the World Bank issues a corporate scorecard, which is submitted each Autumn to the Bank's annual meetings. The scorecard is supposed to "provide a snapshot of the Bank's overall performance, including its business modernisation, in the context of development results." It is compiled by Bank staff to "facilitat[e] strategic dialogue between management and the board on progress made and areas that need attention."
Accountability
News
Kim's World Bank strategy: real change or "PR exercise"?
The World Bank's new president Jim Yong Kim set out his vision for the institution at the Bank's annual meetings in mid October, but his desire to build a 'solutions' bank and end absolute poverty comes with few details or big changes at the Bank. Next year's replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA) will put Kim's vision to the test.
Accountability
News
Bretton Woods Project submission to IEO evaluation
We are very pleased to see the IEO continue its excellent work reaching out to stakeholders, external parties and shareholders, while both considering its work programme and conducting evaluations. This is a vital component of the IEO’s approach that ensures well-informed and well-considered analysis.
IFI governance
News
IMF lending in Europe unprecedented, programmes failing
The contradictions revealed by IMF involvement in eurozone bailouts, identified in your article ("Less Cash, More Impact", The Economist, October 5th), reflect a crisis of legitimacy at the Fund.
IFI governance
News
World Bank-IMF annual meetings 2012
Analysis, news, and about the events inside and around the World Bank/IMF annual meetings 2012. This page is being updated regularly.
IFI governance
Background
World Bank lending facilities
The World Bank's investment lending (ILs) have been joined in recent years by new lending instruments, whilst IL itself faces an overhaul, as the Bank's operational policies come under review and pilots for the use of 'country systems' mature. The Bank is presently using four lending instruments: investment lending, development policy lending (DPL), Program-for-Results, and the World Bank guarantee program.
IFI governance
News
Chinese investment banker takes post as head of IFC
Chinese national Jin-Yong Cai will become the International Finance Corporation's (IFC, the World Bank's private sector arm) executive vice president and chief executive officer, it was announced in August.
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.