Minutes of an open roundtable with EDs that occurred during the 2013 spring meetings.
Water
Infrastructure
News
Indian NGO faults IFC energy project
A November field study by Indian NGO the Research Collective has found that an International Finance Corporation (IFC, the Bank's private sector arm) supported coal-power plant run by GMR Kamalanga Energy Limited (GKEL), financed through a financial intermediary, has caused water pollution in the Odisha region.
Finance
News
Tanzania water project "complete failure"
A Tanzanian water and sanitation project, in which the Bank invested $164 million from 2003 to 2010, has been "a complete failure" according to NGO Civil and Political Rights Watch (CPRW).
Private Sector
News
IFC-Coke 'development' project to sell drinks
In a three-year $100 million partnership, announced in mid March, the IFC and Coca-Cola will work together with female entrepreneurs in Africa and other emerging markets.
Environment
News
IFC-funded mines: still courting controversy
Following a year of violence associated with IFC-funded mining projects, the IFC's mining investments in Guatemala, Mongolia, Peru and Colombia are still provoking controversy.
Environment
News
Getting its hands dirty
As the World Bank president became more vocal about climate change, concerns remain about the Bank's involvement in fossil fuels, including projects in Mongolia and Central Asia, and questions have been raised about its accountability for hydro projects in India and Guatemala.
Infrastructure
Background
Water privatisation management issues
This session featured a discussion on the implications of current water policy reforms that have increasingly privatised and commodified water.
Environment
News
Unearthing the IFC's links to mining abuses
As mining projects in South Africa and Peru face violent opposition, critics are questioning the stakes held by the International Finance Corporation (IFC, the World Bank's private sector arm) in the corporations at the centre of the controversies. New IFC funding for mining projects in Mongolia and Guinea is also causing alarm, leading to a call for a return to the recommendations of the 2005 Extractive Industries Review.
Accountability
News
World Bank safeguards under scrutiny
With the World Bank's safeguards review due to be launched, indigenous groups and civil society organisations (CSOs) called for it to be rigorous and extensive. Meanwhile, the environmental and social track record of the Bank and its private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), has come under scrutiny in India, Colombia and Brazil.
Accountability
News
Access for the poor?
As the G20 and the World Bank continue their push for increased investment in large-scale public-private led infrastructure projects, further scrutiny of the Bank's track record puts its strategy in question.
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