The World Bank’s efforts to increase security of land tenure have largely amounted to a ‘formalisation’ of land property rights, which reinforce land inequalities and the disenfranchisement of rural peoples.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Environment
Analysis
Gambling with the planet’s future? World Bank Development Policy Finance, ‘green’ conditionality, and the push for a private-led energy transition
BWP's review of energy sector conditionality in World Bank Development Policy Financing from fiscal years 2018 to 2023 reveals the Bank has followed a pattern of promoting neoliberal reforms in many countries' energy sectors, with climate action increasingly being viewed as the rationale for these changes.
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.
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.
Accountability
Analysis
A proposal for Ajay: No evolution without remedy
While World Bank President declares the benefits of a “bigger and better” Bank, the scandal of alleged child sexual abuse and cover up relating to IFC investments in Bridge Academies demonstrates the urgent need for the Bank to establish a robust remedy framework.
Finance
Analysis
Decolonising the global economic architecture: The prerequisite for a just transition
Global South faces severe structural deficiencies that weaken its economic sovereignty and put it at the mercy of a neo-colonial global financial architecture.
Finance
News
New data show Global South is in worst debt crisis ever, with another lost decade looming
Civil society alliances call to prioritise sustainability of life over debt, while IMF continues to insist situation is not "systemic", in contrast to what the UN Secretary General has called a "systemic failure".
IFI governance
Analysis
V20 communiqué analysis Annual Meetings 2023: Climate vulnerable countries demand more voice at Bretton Woods Institutions
V20 seeks confirmation of official observer status at the Bretton Woods Institutions by COP28, as IMF quota review fails to give greater voting power to climate vulnerable countries.
Accountability
News
Demanding accountability: Response to reports of a child sexual abuse cover up at the World Bank
A joint statement from 34 global civil society organizations regarding the extremely disturbing reports of a child sexual abuse cover-up by World Bank Group officials in connection with IFC's investment in Bridge International Academies in Kenya.
IFI governance
Background
Transformative policy pathways: Lessons from feminist economics programming for the IMF
Notes from the Civil Society Policy Forum on 10 October 2023 titled "Transformative policy pathways: Lessons from feminist economics programming for the IMF."
IFI governance
Analysis
Annual Meetings 2023 Preamble: Lack of governance reform and economic transformation front and centre as World Bank and IMF meet in Africa for first time in 50 years
As the World Bank moves toward finalising its ‘Evolution Roadmap’, and IMF shareholders struggle to agree on an outcome to the 16th Review of Quotas, the stakes in Morocco are high.
Finance
News
The IMF in Kenya: Regressive taxation as the new face of austerity
Kenyans take to the streets as IMF-imposed regressive tax regime aggravates cost of living crisis and undermines productivity.
