New research reveals that Bank’s private sector arm, the IFC's Heath in Africa initiative is benefitting wealthy elites not the poorest.
Kenya
Rights
News
Inspection Panel finds World Bank did not apply safeguards on Kenya forest project
The World Bank board has approved the action plan in response to the Inspection Panel report on the Kenya Sengwer case. The Sengwer indigenous community welcomed the action plan but demanded recognition of their status as "custodians" of the Embobut forest.
Environment
Analysis
Clean Technology Fund (CTF)
Clean Technology Fund (CTF) funding approvals continue to rise, including private sector projects for geothermal energy. Revisions for investment plans were approved for Nigeria and the MENA region, with Libya added as a new country.
Environment
Analysis
Scaling up Renewable Energy Program (SREP)
Fourteen new countries were accepted to the Scaling up Renewable Energy Program in Low Income Countries (SREP). Programme implementation continues to be slow, with expected co-financing often dropped.
IFI governance
Background
Matching money and expertise: ensuring conflict sensitivity is top of the agenda for the bank's fragile state financing
Notes of a meeting on matching money and expertise at the World Bank-IMF annual meetings 2014
IFI governance
Background
CSO land rights and resettlement
Notes of a meeting with CSOs on land rights and resettlement at the World Bank-IMF annual meetings 2014
Social services
News
A poor diagnosis: the World Bank’s health record
World Bank health financing benefits wealthy elites not poorest according to new IEG evaluation and Oxfam analysis
Social services
Analysis
Going, going, gone?
IFC accused of “McDonaldisation” of education, with investment in low-fee private schools, despite evidence of negative impacts on inequality.
Accountability
Background
CSOs - Inspection Panel meeting and discussion
Q: How do you train the board? Organise orientation of new Board members, are often…
Rights
News
World Bank accused of resettlement “cultural genocide”
A series of high-profile eviction cases in Kenya, Nigeria and Cambodia has exposed the World Bank’s failure to protect the human rights of communities supposed to benefit from its projects, prompting widespread international condemnation.
Private Sector
News
Shopping mall Shangri-La: IFC’s lending for luxury
IFC investments in luxury hotels and shopping malls highlight projects with weak development outcomes.
Conditionality
Analysis
IMF conditionality and its discontents
A new study shows a significant worldwide pattern of protests targeting the IMF, reflecting the increase in IMF influence through loan programmes with austerity conditions attached and indirect pressure on governments.
