The April 1998 Institute for Development Studies Bulletin critiques the Bank’s World Development Report, The State in a Changing World.
International
IFI governance
News
Sibling rivalry: can the Fund and Bank cooperate?
UK Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short told the Financial Times in April: “We are in a very silly situation. The international institutions are meant to be complementary, but the IMF keeps charging around taking other peoples’ jobs in areas where it is not necessarily competent”.
Knowledge
News
Knowledge report discussions
The Bretton Woods Project is about to be sent the yellow cover draft of the Bank’s 1998 World Development Report.
IFI governance
News
Bank builds muscle to deal with crises
The Bank will spend $50m over the next two years recruiting financial sector experts for a new Special Financial Operations unit.
IFI governance
News
IFC slammed by Anthropologists Association
In April Jane Hill, President of the American Anthropological Association, wrote a strong letter to Bank Group President James Wolfensohn and Carol Lee, IFC Vice President and General Counsel.
Conditionality
News
ESAF review: new IMF strategy urged
More flexibility and a new approach was suggested in the external review of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (IMF loans to poorer countries) published in March.
Environment
News
NGOs debate IDA issues
The IDA Deputies - government officials who negotiate the refinancing of the World Bank’s International Development Association concessional lending arm - have met twice to discuss the policy framework for future IDA lending.
IFI governance
News
Policing the policemen
The IMF has been urged to be more transparent and accountable by a US Study Group convened by the Centre of Concern, and by the UK Chancellor.
Environment
News
MIGA pressed to reform
Friends of the Earth US and other NGOs wrote to their government representatives in April to stress that the donor discussions about providing more money for MIGA should talk about reforms first and about shifting the portfolio away from mining and fossil fuel projects such as the controversial Lihir Island goldmine in Papua New Guinea.
Finance
News
Preventing private sector debt crises
In addition to extending the IMF’s role, its governors have been examining measures to prevent future financial sector crises.
Rights
News
IMF PR tour
The IMF is holding a meeting in late May in Ghana to explain its strategy to NGOs there.
Knowledge
News
Stiglitz questions outdated “Washington consensus”
Giving the WIDER annual lecture in Helsinki the World Bank Chief Economist called for a…
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.