World Bank and IMF shareholders must use the anniversaries of the Inspection Panel and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights respectively to demand both establish human rights policies and meet their international obligation to provide remedy
View all articles
View all articles
View all articles
South Asia
IFI governance
Analysis
V20 communiqué analysis Spring Meetings 2023: Climate vulnerable countries call for global financial architecture fit to tackle climate and debt emergencies
V20 called for substantive debt relief and increased concessional financing to help break vicious cycle of debt and Loss and Damage, and spur ‘climate-positive development’.
Finance
Analysis
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.
Environment
News
Resilience and Sustainability Trust’s first loans promote climate PPPs, raising concerns they may create fiscal risks
Initial financing for Costa Rica, Barbados, Rwanda, Bangladesh and Jamaica tied to efforts to ‘green’ PPP frameworks.
Private Sector
News
World Bank’s financial inclusion agenda blind to growing gendered over-indebtedness
The World Bank’s financial inclusion agenda in time of cost-of-living crisis, austerity and financialisation promotes indebtedness of the poor, especially women.
Finance
News
Between a rock and a hard place: How can IMF provide support amidst debt restructure deadlock?
IMF’s lending into arrears policy can be a way to break out of the debt restructure deadlock and provide the much-needed financing for countries in debt distress.
IFI governance
Analysis
V20 communiqué analysis Annual Meetings 2022: Climate vulnerable countries call for debt relief and a revamped IMF
The finance ministers for the Vulnerable Group of Twenty, a bloc of 58 developing country economies representing some 1.5 billion people, issued a communiqué on 16 October.
Finance
Analysis
IMF debt sustainability analysis in times of compounding crises: Still unfit for purpose
New IMF debt sustainability framework fails to alleviate concerns over transparency and overoptimism in midst of large-scale debt crisis, as countries face severe austerity and private lenders wait for bailouts.
Other news
Private Sector
News
B-Ready for more ill-founded private-sector solutions
The World Bank released a concept note of Doing Business report replacement, B-Ready project, ignoring civil society demands of an independent evaluation.
Infrastructure
News
MIGA’s support for gas projects raises concerns about its climate credentials
World Bank’s commercial insurance arm provided nearly $850 million in guarantees for gas projects in Bangladesh and Mozambique in fiscal year 2022.
IFI governance
Background
IMF strategy on social spending: New direction or band-aid?
Notes from Civil Society Policy From event from April 12 2023, titled "IMF strategy on social spending: New direction or Band-Aid?"
IFI governance
Background
Coup d'états and political instability: The roles of national, regional, and international actors
Notes from a Civil Society Policy Forum on 12 October titled: "Coup d'états and political instability: The roles of national, regional, and international actors."
IFI governance
Background
Green and just? Climate in IMF surveillance & lending – evidence from Pakistan, Argentina, South Africa, Indonesia
Notes from a Civil Society Policy Forum on 11 October titled, "Green and just? Climate in IMF surveillance & lending – evidence from Pakistan, Argentina, South Africa, Indonesia."
Finance
News
Restart of Pakistan’s IMF loan agreement collapses with change in government, as soaring costs of IFC-supported LNG add to fiscal pain
Pakistan increases fuel prices in effort to meet IMF conditions, while cost of importing LNG surges.
Social services
News
Civil society hails IFC’s divestment from for-profit education provider Bridge International Academies
The divestment follows a 2020 freeze in new IFC direct and indirect investments in for-profit education providers.
Social services
News
Global Day of Action against the IMF and World Bank rejects corporate recovery agenda
Civil society day of action rejects corporate agenda and greenwashing in World Bank and IMF Covid-19 recovery.
Featured briefings
19 July 2023
The Bretton Woods Observer: Summer 2023
6 April 2023
World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings 2023
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.