East Asia & Pacific

Suralaya Power Station, Indonesia. Credit: Melvinas Priananda, Trend Asia.

Environment

Analysis

Coal not yet confined to the “old days” by World Bank Group

Despite the World Bank’s commitment to move away from funding coal, a series of loopholes in its financial intermediary lending remain that will continue to allow finance to support coal power projects.

13 December 2023 | At Issue

IFI governance

Analysis

V20 communiqué analysis Annual Meetings 2023: Climate vulnerable countries demand more voice at Bretton Woods Institutions

V20 seeks confirmation of official observer status at the Bretton Woods Institutions by COP28, as IMF quota review fails to give greater voting power to climate vulnerable countries.

18 October 2023

Environment

News

World Bank’s reliance on private capital to finance green transition in low- and middle-income countries risks falling flat

Despite lofty rhetoric, Bank’s attempts to use scarce concessional finance to build investable project pipelines to secure power sector decarbonisation faces significant hurdles.

4 October 2023

IFI governance

Analysis

IMFC chair's statement analysis Spring Meetings 2023: Optimism and complacency at odds with growing desperation of Global South stakeholders

The IMFC again did not issue a communiqué as it could not agree on language on the war in Ukraine. A chair’s statement was issued in lieu of the communiqué and emphasised the resilience of the global safety net system, better than projected conditions and concerns about significant challenges.

19 April 2023

Private Sector

News

B-Ready for more ill-founded private-sector solutions

The World Bank released a concept note of Doing Business report replacement, B-Ready project, ignoring civil society demands of an independent evaluation.

19 July 2023

IFI governance

Analysis

V20 communiqué analysis Spring Meetings 2023: Climate vulnerable countries call for global financial architecture fit to tackle climate and debt emergencies

V20 called for substantive debt relief and increased concessional financing to help break vicious cycle of debt and Loss and Damage, and spur ‘climate-positive development’.

19 April 2023

IFI governance

Analysis

IMF quota review: Putting climate at the core of IMF governance reform

Addition of cumulative carbon emissions indicator in IMF quota formula would give climate-vulnerable countries greater voice in IMF.

8 December 2022 | Guest analysis

Gender

Analysis

New IMF gender strategy's potential to catalyse change undermined by austerity and problematic mission creep

IMF’s new gender mainstreaming strategy makes effort to include civil society demands but falls short of transformative vision as austerity remains Fund’s raison-d’état.

8 December 2022

IFI governance

Analysis

V20 communiqué analysis Annual Meetings 2022: Climate vulnerable countries call for debt relief and a revamped IMF

The finance ministers for the Vulnerable Group of Twenty, a bloc of 58 developing country economies representing some 1.5 billion people, issued a communiqué on 16 October.

19 October 2022

IFI governance

Background

Greening whole economies? Unpacking World Bank plans for Paris alignment by July 2023

Notes from a Civil Society Policy Forum event on 14 October titled "Greening whole economies? Unpacking World Bank plans for Paris alignment by July 2023."

14 October 2022 | Minutes

Finance

Analysis

A new Bretton Woods for whom? Civil society calls for democratisation of global governance

As geopolitical tensions rise amidst worsening global economic conditions, civil society demands the democratisation of a world economic order away from the established Global North and elite capitalist hegemony.

21 July 2022

Infrastructure

Analysis

World Bank announces support for CCUS in Nigeria despite criticisms it reinforces fossil fuel dependence

World Bank trust fund ESMAP will provide support for domestic market, while IFC will support private sector investment in CCUS.

6 April 2022