Bank President James Wolfensohn spent much of the Bank Annual Meeting distancing his institution from its sibling, insisting that it is not a “second level IMF” and does not provide bail-out funds.
International
IFI governance
News
Greening the Bank: next steps
In September over 50 NGOs from 15 countries made recommendations to the World Bank on the environment.
Conditionality
News
WB/IMF collaboration plans
In response to the external ESAF Review, the World Bank is to collaborate with the IMF in pilot projects in Nicaragua, Vietnam, Tajikistan, Ethiopia, Cameroon and Zimbabwe over the next 12-18 months.
Infrastructure
News
Conflict of interest in Bank energy initiatives
A new briefing from the Institute for Policy Studies highlights the Bank’s reluctance to take decisive action on climate change.
IFI governance
News
Transparency
The G7 has agreed to the G22 Working Group on Transparency and Accountability’s recommendation to establish a formal mechanism to evaluate IMF policies and programmes, but it is not clear what form this will take.
Knowledge
News
Poverty WDR virtual consultations
In September the World Bank organised an electronic consultation on its planned poverty World Development Report, due out October 2000.
Knowledge
News
Green accounting debate in crucial stage
For about a decade the World Bank has made occasional statements that countries should move away from orthodox national accounts and integrate environmental and social costs and benefits.
Environment
News
New social code in response to “human tragedy”
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.
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
Oxfam Guide examines participation
An Oxfam publication by Tricia Feeney provides a very useful analysis of approaches to participation in development projects.
IFI governance
News
Forest review concession
The Bank has now accepted that its Forest Policy Implementation Review will look at effects on forests of its non-forest lending, and that its Operations Evaluation Department will do some of the field studies.
IFI governance
News
Towards a partnership Bank?
A refreshing new World Bank discussion paper frankly recognises that aid agencies are not cooperating effectively, and that mechanisms such as Consultative Groups and the Bank’s internal culture need to change.
Featured briefings
6 April 2023
World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings 2023
5 April 2023
The IMF at the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: The need for governance reform
As the world celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is time the IMF’s shareholders use the opportunities provided by the anniversary and growing calls for reforms to the international financial architecture to redesign the IMF’s governance structures and programmes to ensure they are consistent with the commitments outlined in 1948 and with international human rights law.
5 April 2023
The global financial architecture and the international debt crisis: An urgent call for reform
Influence of unreformed international financial institutions and creditor interests in debt solutions in low- and middle-income countries plagued by delay and ineffective when undertaken.