Sub-Saharan Africa

Accountability

News

IFIs withhold support from Equatorial Guinea

The IMF and the WB will withhold assistance from Equatorial Guinea until President Obiang accounts for the use of oil revenues.

1 April 2003

Conditionality

News

Ghana faces IMF arm-twisting

After the IMF intensified retaliatory measures on Ghana for failing to comply with its requirements, the country now appears eager to please the Washington institution, probably at a high social cost.

1 April 2003

Social services

Commentary

The Fund or the people?

Mulima Kufekisa Akapelwa, Economic Justice Programme Coordinator for the Catholic Centre for Justice, Development and Peace, says that IMF-forced privatisation leads Zambians to ask who their government answers to.

28 January 2003 | Guest comment

Infrastructure

News

Transparency of power agreements faulted

The World Bank recently argued that it could not release the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) of the Nam Theun II dam in Laos because “it is a proprietary agreement and IDA is not at liberty to disclose it without the agreement of the signatories”.

28 January 2003

Social services

News

Ghana water privatisation disputed by independent analysts

An international fact-finding mission on plans to reform the water sector in Ghana made its conclusions public before the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the IMF.

26 November 2002

Environment

News

New claim on Chad-Cameroon project

Communities in Cameroon affected by the World Bank financed Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline have filed a new claim with the Bank’s Inspection Panel.

26 November 2002

Accountability

News

Lesotho corruption verdict

Following a seven month trial, Canadian company Acres International was convicted on two counts of bribing an official to secure contracts for the Lesotho Highland Water Project, which received financing from the World Bank.

26 November 2002

Land

News

IFI role in Southern Africa famine condemned

A new study from Oxfam questions why, after years of World Bank and IMF-designed agricultural sector reforms, Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique face chronic food insecurity.

17 September 2002

Rights

News

Africans challenge monopoly on policies

Activists from Eastern and Southern Africa gathered in Nairobi early August to discuss a civil society Economic Policy Project launched by MWENGO, a reflection and development centre for NGOs in the region.

17 September 2002

Rights

News

Bank inspectors find fault with Chad Cameroon pipeline project

The Bank’s own Inspection Panel has backed many of the complaints by non-governmental organizations about a major oil pipeline in West Africa.

17 September 2002

Accountability

News

Bank’s pledge to fight corruption put to test

Allegations of corruption made against Bank-backed projects in Lesotho, Uganda and Kenya have raised questions about the Bank’s recent anti-corruption crusade. A report from Mozambique complains that the Bank is rewarding “good performance” by allowing corruption.

24 July 2002

Finance

News

G8: “Absolutely zilch” for Africa

Civil society organizations were disappointed by the outcome of talks at the G8 summit in Canada on an Africa Action Plan, HIPC and education.

24 July 2002