World Bank briefing on the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) with a particular focus on recent private sector window projects.
Western Europe
Conditionality
News
Democracy: "an enemy to the IMF"?
The legitimacy of IMF engagement with Middle East and North African nations and eurozone crisis countries continues to be heavily criticised.
Accountability
News
French police raid Lagarde home
French police searched the Paris apartment of IMF managing director Christine Lagarde in late March as part of an investigation over the way Lagarde, as French minister of finance, handled the compensation settlement of French millionaire Bernard Tapie.
Finance
Commentary
Cyprus - whose crisis?
The economic crisis in Cyprus erupted during the second cycle of the European recession of 2011 as a result of harsh austerity policies imposed since 2010 in Europe. It is a new crisis born of a failed response to the original European crisis.
IFI governance
Background
The UK's role in the World Bank and IMF
This page outlines the structure of the UK government's interaction with the World Bank and the IMF. It provides contact information for the appropriate staff at the Department for International Development and HM Treasury who deal with the Bretton Woods institutions
Accountability
Background
UK Civil Society Meeting with Minister of State Rt Hon Alan Duncan MP
This was a meeting on 1 October 2012, between the Minister of State of the UK's Department for International Development (DFID) and civil society representatives, focusing on the World Bank.
Background
The Project's communications: your views
In order to improve our communications, the Bretton Woods Project conducted an audience survey in 2012, which almost 500 people took part in.
Rights
Analysis
World Bank on jobs: a "significant departure" or "business as usual"?
The opening sentences of the 2013 World Development Report Jobs, could not be clearer: "Jobs are the cornerstone of economic and social development". Brendan Martin of UK NGO Public World examines the policy implications for developing economies, trade unions and the wider development community.
Finance
News
The Troika setting a "default trap"?
Controversy erupted in January after the IMF implied lenders to Greece may need to provide yet more debt relief, while the social and economic sustainability of other Troika (the lending triumvirate comprising the Fund, European Central Bank and European Commission) programmes is still in question.
IFI governance
News
Kim launches first World Bank restructuring salvo
After winning over staff and shareholders in his first six months as World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim launched a publicly unexplained reorganisation of senior management at the Bank in late December, ahead of an expected strategy overhaul and deeper restructuring.
Rights
Background
UK civil society meeting with UK World Bank Executive Director Gwen Hines
Notes of a meeting with UK executive director to the World Bank Gwen Hines in December 2012
Conditionality
News
IMF controversy: is austerity backfiring?
The IMF's shift in stance regarding easing Greece's debt burden reflects a deepening controversy about whether austerity policies are counter-productive.
