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Sub-Saharan Africa

President Ramaphosa officiate first meeting of G20 Foreign Ministers under South African Presidency. Photo: Government of South Africa/ Flickr

IFI governance

Analysis

G20 press conference and media statement analysis Spring Meetings 2025: lack of Chair's statement yet more evidence of challenges to global consensus

The South African G20 Presidency failed to issue a communiqué and opted not to issue a Chair’s statement at the IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings as the US administration’s explicit hostility to multilateralism significantly decreases the potential for consensus across all multilateral fora.

30 April 2025
Barbados finance minister Ryan Straughn chairs V20's ministerial session on 24 April, during the 2025 World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings in Washington DC. Photo: CVF/V20.

IFI governance

Analysis

V20 communiqué analysis Spring Meetings 2025: amid attacks on climate action, climate vulnerable countries once again highlight urgent need to step back from the brink

Faced with deafening silence from Bank and Fund leadership on climate issues at the Spring Meetings, climate vulnerable countries demand urgent changes to global financial architecture.

30 April 2025
Old Mulago Hospital, Kampala, Uganda. Credit: Joyce Nanjobe Kawooya/Wikimedia

Social services

Commentary

New report documents abuses at IFC-funded hospitals, further exposing consequences of the “billions to trillions” approach

Bloomberg investigation adds further evidence of negative consequences for people and governments of IFC’s for-profit healthcare model.

15 April 2025 | Guest comment
Ethiopia Minister of Finance at the Horn of Africa Initiative Ministerial meeting, Brussels December 2023. Photo: Christophe Licoppe/ European Union/Wikimedia

Finance

News

Private lenders’ resistance to Ethiopia's debt relief highlights urgent need for debt architecture reform

Ethiopia becomes the latest victim of the dysfunctional Common Framework, as private lenders continue to hold out on its debt restructuring with significant human rights, social and economic consequences.

15 April 2025
Palace of Nations - UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo: Trabantos/ Shutterstock

Rights

News

UN Human Rights Council debt roundtable concludes debt crisis is a human rights crisis

UN Human Rights Council’s Seventh Intersessional Meeting calls for states to use FfD4 to agree reforms that enable states to deliver on their human rights obligations.

15 April 2025
illustration of the Bretton Woods Observer winter 2024, presenting the World Bank globe sitting on a hidden pile of gold looking at the Wall Street Bull (which represents the financial sector)

Environment

Analysis

COP29 sees MDBs climate finance take centre stage, as civil society brands new climate finance goal a ‘betrayal’

Rich countries agree to provide a paltry $300 billion in public finance by 2035 including funds channelled through MDBs, as Small Island States and Least Developed Countries stage walkout.

12 December 2024
Low angle view of electricity pylon against sky. Credit: Uva Rova / pexels.com

Infrastructure

News

World Bank’s Mission 300: a path to power, for whom?

Bank's focus on attracting private investment through energy privatisation raises concerns, as it puts private profits over sustainable energy systems, burdening governments with debt and making electricity less affordable for citizens.

12 December 2024

IFI governance

Analysis

G20 communiqué analysis Annual Meetings 2024: progress on tax and inequality obscures Group's wider failures

At the 25th anniversary of the Group’s Finance Track, the G20 communiqué’s robust language on the taxation of billionaires, including encouraging “constructive discussions” about the UN Tax Conference was contrasted by much more cautious language on MDB reform, climate finance, debt and Special Drawing Rights.

29 October 2024
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Other news

Accountability

News

Civil society and communities achieve victory as World Bank cancels tourism project in Tanzania

World Bank confirms cancellation of controversial tourism project in Tanzania, after over 2 years of civil society campaigning.

15 April 2025

Environment

News

Trump election may add pressure to reverse World Bank’s prohibition on support for nuclear power

Donald Trump’s election may result in a revision of World Bank’s long-standing prohibition of support to nuclear power.

12 December 2024

Infrastructure

News

Banga calls energy access a ‘human right’ as he announces World Bank will provide access for 250 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa by 2030

Explicit mention of human rights obligations has long been a taboo subject at the World Bank.

3 July 2024

Rights

News

World Bank project fails to protect Tanzanian pastoralists from serious human rights abuses

New report by Oakland Institute shows World Bank failing to uphold human rights standards resulting in violent assaults and evictions of Tanzanian pastoralists.

9 April 2024

IFI governance

Background

Beyond size in IDA21 replenishment: What about socio-economic transformation?

Notes from Civil Society Policy Forum panel 19 April titled, "Beyond size in IDA21 replenishment: What about socio-economic transformation?"

19 April 2024 | Minutes

IFI governance

Background

Agriculture, financialization, and gender: Exploring the World Bank’s response to interlinked phenomena

Notes from the Civil Society Policy Forum on 17 April 2024 titled "Agriculture, financialization, and gender: Exploring the World Bank’s response to interlinked phenomena"

17 April 2024 | Minutes

IFI governance

Background

The future of Special Drawing Rights as a development finance tool: What's next?

Notes from the Civil Society Policy Forum session on 17 April 2024, titled "The Future of Special Drawing Rights as a Development Finance Tool: What's Next?"

17 April 2024 | Minutes

Environment

News

Civil society raises concerns about Resilience and Sustainability Trust’s green conditionality as Fund conducts interim review

CSOs and experts question the suitability of ‘green' policy conditions attached to RST loans.

9 April 2024
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