A joint NGO letter recently helped prevent a plan by World Bank Managing Directors to axe the Environmentally and Socially Sustainable Development Vice Presidency (ESSD).
International
Knowledge
News
Organising for the 2000 poverty report
The 2000 Report will tackle poverty and be led by Ravi Kanbur, of Cornell University in the USA, working with a team of Bank staff including Michael Walton, Director, Poverty Reduction.
Knowledge
News
Official report critiques Bank poverty strategy
A new report, commissioned by the Government of Norway, reveals that the World Bank has a long way to go in clarifying and operationalising its poverty reduction objectives.
Rights
News
Mining conference
A World Bank conference this July in Padang, Papua New Guinea, discussed “mining and the community in South-East Asia” but many NGOs known to represent mine-affected people were not invited.
Knowledge
News
What is the WDR for, and how is it produced?
Given the lack of clarity and satisfaction about how WDRs are produced, and the difficulty of persuading the authors to recognise and include alternative views, the Bretton Woods Project has written to the Bank asking for a formal explanation.
News
London information centre moves
The World Bank’s London office has transferred responsibility for providing public access to World Bank operational documents to the EMIC library at the Department of Trade and Industry, Kingsgate House, Victoria Street.
IFI governance
News
“New” IFC strategy fails to address key issues
In 1997 the IFC commissioned a welcome review of its objectives following pressure from NGOs and some Executive Directors who argued that it emphasised deal-making in response to the private sector at the expense of any clear focus on poverty alleviation or environmental protection.
Finance
News
IDA talks climax
The World Bank is now in the advanced stages of negotiation with donor countries on funding for the next 3 years of its International Development Association soft loan funding arm.
IFI governance
News
Participation Conference
Participation experiences in 20 Bank-assisted operations will be reviewed in an international conference co-sponsored by the World Bank, to be held in Washington in November 1998.
IFI governance
News
New IFC chief appointed from private sector
The IFC has just announced who will replace its Executive Vice President, Jannik Lindbaek, who is retiring because of ill health at the end of the year.
IFI governance
News
CAS publication agreed
The Bank has agreed to publish Country Assistance Strategies (CAS) - the documents which set out the Bank’s multi-year lending plans - once they have been discussed by the Board and if the borrower government requests it.
IFI governance
News
World Bank self-image revealed
This summer the World Bank’s external affairs team commissioned a detailed survey of views about what the Bank does and should do.
