IFI governance

News

Instituting IMF evaluation

Two more external evaluations of the IMF’s activities are about to be completed.

Social services

News

IMF/WHO collaboration

IMF staff have met Dr Bruntland, head of the World Health Organisation, to identify mechanisms for IMF-WHO collaboration.

Knowledge

News

Bank Poverty Assessments - “irrelevant”?

The Bank’s Poverty Assessments contain “relatively little of policy relevance” because of their narrow focus on income-based poverty lines, according to a report by the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague.

Conditionality

News

Selectivity: conditionality by any other name

Government officials met the World Bank in March to discuss new criteria for allocating its IDA (soft loan) resources among countries.

Private Sector

News

Confusion about WB private sector review

Government officials who negotiated contributions to the Bank’s IDA 12 lending window agreed with the Bank that “a clear private sector development strategy should be established for the World bank Group during the course of 1999 to guide the work of the IBRD, IDA, IFC and MIGA”.

News

Bretton Woods Update

The Bretton Woods Project is just establishing a website at www.brettonwoodsproject.org.

Accountability

News

Corporate lobbying at the Bank exposed

A recent article in the Legal Times alleges that there is significant corporate lobbying of the World Bank.

Knowledge

News

Democracy and civil society rise up Bank’s agenda

At the end of February the World Bank and the Government of Korea hosted a conference entitled Democracy, Market Economy and Development.

Knowledge

News

Bank approach to social capital criticised

Ben Fine, Professor of Economics at SOAS, University of London, has produced a 30,000 word paper which reviews and severely critiques the World Bank’s approach to social capital.

Knowledge

News

Bank/Fund growth model questioned

Both ENDS and the Bretton Woods Project co-organised a roundtable meeting in early March to discuss the World Bank and IMF’s core economic models.

Accountability

News

Last ditch attempt to save Inspection Panel

On March 24 the World Bank Board will hold a special consultation session about likely changes to the Bank’s Independent Inspection Panel.

Private Sector

News

New IFC chief expresses need for new inspiration

Peter Woicke, new Executive Vice President of IFC (the World Bank’s private finance investment arm) told IFC magazine Impact why he left J.P. Morgan Securities after 29 years.