The African Economic Research Consortium has been awarded the contract by the sub-saharan African Executive Directors at the Bank and Fund to act as the commissioning agent for the Analytical Trust Fund.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Rights
News
Iraq and Ethiopia treatment shows debt relief double standards
The differing treatment given to Ethiopia and Iraq in debt relief suggest that geopolitical considerations are again outweighing internationally agreed criteria for fair debt cancellation.
Rights
News
World Bank pushes Malawi agriculture privatisation
World Bank manoeuvres to ensure parliamentary approval of a controversial agriculture privatisation policy demonstrates the continued influence of the Bank and the problems with Poverty and Social Impact Analysis.
Conditionality
News
Parliaments: the missing link in democratising national policy making
Across sub-saharan Africa, good governance efforts depend on the strengthening of parliamentary democracy. In sharp contrast country relations with IFIs reveal weak parliamentary engagement.
Knowledge
News
PRSPs: a continuation of structural adjustment
Debate remains over the formulation and content of PRSPs. Many analysts suggest that they continue the trajectory of structural adjustment policies.
Private Sector
News
Acres debarment: Litmus test for Bank on corruption
The Bank's sanctions committee has reopened the debarment case against Acres International, a Canadian firm whose conviction for bribing an official was upheld by the Lesotho appeals court last August.
Conditionality
Commentary
Life under the IMF’s magnifying glass:
The Fund takes to micro-management in Zambia to ensure compliance with belt tightening measures, threatening civil unrest.
Rights
News
Congolese groups unite to demand scrutiny of forest policies
NGOs in the Democratic Republic of Congo have allied to challenge industrial logging in their country's rainforests. In February they appealed to the World Bank and other agencies to halt a plan which would make up to 60 million hectares of rainforest available to logging companies in the coming years.
Knowledge
News
IMF and poverty: strange bed fellows
The IMF's capacity and legitimacy to address poverty have been debated by many analysts within…
Accountability
News
In through the back door: capacity building or concession taking?
Some of the recommendations made in the diagnostic studies of the Integrated Framework touch upon sensitive areas in development policy such as privatisation, trade liberalisation and investment and competition policy.
Environment
News
UK MPs support Bushmen
A motion signed by 42 MPs urges the UK government to encourage Botswana to respect the rights of Botswana's Bushmen.
Conditionality
News
Debt and destruction in Senegal
A new report by Demba Moussa Demb
