Leaders are at last recognising the extent of the human crisis caused by the financial crash and failure of the growth process to deliver socially sustainable development.
International
Knowledge
News
Globalization and institutions: the Bank aims to set agenda
The World Bank’s World Development Report for next year will tackle the thorny questions of which institutions can direct economic, social and environmental policies in an age of globalization.
IFI governance
News
New criticisms of the Bank’s resettlement record
A new official report has criticised the Bank’s record in overseeing the resettlement of people displaced by projects it supports.
Finance
News
Citizens groups set out 6 point alternative plan
Leading non-governmental thinkers and advocates met in Ottawa in parallel with the Commonwealth Finance Ministers’ meeting to discuss financial crises and the needs of the world’s most vulnerable and poorest people.
Social services
News
Social policy limitations
Bob Deacon, Director of the Globalization and Social Policy Programme (based in Sheffield and Helsinki) criticised the World Bank’s stand on social policy at a recent Overseas Development Institute discussion meeting in London.
IFI governance
News
Partnerships action
The World Bank has finished consultations on its partnership initiative to “put committed governments and their people at the centre of the development process” and agreed some action steps for the next few months.
Finance
News
Scaffolding for global architecture
In late October the G7 took limited steps to strengthen the international financial architecture, after the World Bank-IMF annual meetings ended with a plethora of proposals but no substantive agreement.
Accountability
News
New Bank fraud hotline
The World Bank Group has set up a telephone hotline to provide a central point for reporting allegations of fraud and corruption.
Knowledge
News
Major new Bank report on aid
A major new Policy Research Report by the Bank argues that it is pointless to provide aid money to countries unless they have certain economic policies and a good institutional environment.
Knowledge
News
New Bank paradigm: Stiglitz and Fine approaches clash
In October World Bank Chief Economist Joe Stiglitz made another major speech going “beyond the well-documented failures of the Washington consensus to begin providing the foundations of an alternative paradigm”.
IFI governance
News
IMF looks to hire PR firm
The IMF has decided to hire a new public relations firm to bolster its battered image.
IFI governance
News
The future of NGO World Bank strategy discussed
In October the Bank Information Center held a strategy meeting for 80 people from NGOs and foundations concerned about the World Bank.
