While Bank critics welcome increased flexibility in infrastructure investment, there are fears that a planned expansion of the commercialised model may undermine poverty reduction efforts.
Water
Rights
News
Pakistani hunger strikers seek reparations for damaging project
In March Pakistani activists observed a hunger strike in front of the World Bank offices in Islamabad. The strikers pointed out that Bank-backed projects have caused serious damage to their livelihoods and the coastal ecology and called for the loan to be suspended.
Infrastructure
Commentary
The World Bank's high-risk hypocrisy
the World Bank is not serious about the social and environmental policies it trumpets at global conferences. Senior World Bank staff in its India office indicated that they neither know nor care about procedures that are supposed to make its infrastructure lending socially responsible. This represents institutional hypocrisy.
Social services
News
Unions, NGOs react to report on services
Union and NGO commentators believe the World Development Report on services contains an underlying bias towards private provision rather than public reform.
Private Sector
News
Leak reveals Bank oil pipeline threat to pillar of Georgian economy
Friends of the Earth has obtained clear evidence of the risks the proposed Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC)…
Environment
News
World Bank announces renewed big infrastructure push
The World Bank President has pledged that the Bank will revive its support for megaprojects and a new report expresses serious concerns about the Bank's track record in this area.
Accountability
News
Bank silent on corporate corruption in Lesotho
Controversy over the call for debarment of a Canadian contractor is proving a litmus test of the Bank's commitment to apply the same standards to corrupt Northern companies as it does to Southern governments.
Rights
News
African right to water
Activists, academics and civil society met in Accra 12-14 May for a conference entitled "Corporate Globalisation & the Scramble for Africa's Water: scrutinising the roles of Bretton Woods Institutions & donor community".
Rights
News
Debate continues over services report
As the window for consultation on the draft of the World Development Report 2004 (WDR), Making Services Work for the Poor, draws to a close, debate continues. In response to civil society criticism of the November outline, the March draft of the Report strikes a more nuanced tone on some of the more contentious issues.
Rights
News
Public excluded from Bolivian Bechtel case
ICSID has ruled that it will not allow the public or media to participate in proceedings in which Bechtel is suing the people of Bolivia for $25 million.
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