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Bretton Woods Update 18

  • Aug 2000
  • PDF
  • Text
  • Past Issues

Knowledge

News

WDR resignation embarrasses Bank

11 August 2000

In late May Ravi Kanbur resigned from his position as World Development Report lead author following attempts by Bank and government officials to make him change his text.

Knowledge

News

Globalization critics confront Bank in e-conference

An online debate on Globalization and Poverty in May generated much interesting material.

11 August 2000

Accountability

News

New report slams Bank/Fund corruption agendas

The World Bank and IMF are urged to rethink their approaches to anti-corruption work in a new briefing.

11 August 2000

Rights

News

Bank assessment policies discussed

The latest issue of News and Notices for World Bank Watchers discusses World Bank social and environmental assessments and calls for a new “dynamic assessment” procedure.

11 August 2000

Knowledge

News

Misleading studies bad for the poor

Growth is good for the poor, proclaims a much-discussed new paper of the same title by the Bank’s research department.

11 August 2000

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Advocacy Programs

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World Bank & IMF in the news

Private Sector

Analysis

15 September 2000

Assessing the IFC: for private gain or poverty reduction?

Bretton Woods Project contribution to compilation of analysis and case studies by a range of NGOs. (September 2000).

Knowledge

News

11 August 2000

Comments on Ravi Kanbur’s resignation

The tussle about what the WDR should and should not emphasize demonstrates that there are forces inside and outside the World Bank hostile to even a modest modification of the dominant paradigm on development.

Knowledge

News

11 August 2000

Bank’s Net Gateway discussions move forward

A number of discussions took place in June and July on the World Bank’s proposed Global Development Gateway internet portal initiative.

Rights

News

11 August 2000

China project shakes Bank

The campaign by pro-Tibetan and other groups to press the World Bank to drop the China Western Poverty Project caused a major political battle at the institution during June.

Accountability

News

11 August 2000

Bank governance work examined

The roles of the World Bank in promoting good governance and democracy are assessed in two new papers.

Rights

News

11 August 2000

Brazilian Indians threatened by World Bank loan failure

A July Urgent Action bulletin from Survival International urges the World Bank and Government of Brazil to act to uphold conditions attached to an 18 year old World Bank loan.

Rights

News

11 August 2000

Chad-Cameroon latest

The World Bank Board approved the Chad-Cameroon oil pipeline project in early June.

Social services

News

11 August 2000

Bank announces major AIDS funding

The World Bank announced in early July that it is to make available $500 million in loans to help countries combat the growing threat of AIDS.

Rights

News

11 August 2000

New SAP alerts

US-based NGO Globalization Challenge Initiative has launched a “Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) Information Alert” service.

Knowledge

News

11 August 2000

Report on transition safety nets

Forthcoming research by Save the Children Fund examines the record of “safety net” social programmes in formerly socialist countries.

Knowledge

News

11 August 2000

Sustainability strategies debated

Academics, officials and NGO representatives heard a range of prominent speakers at the Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics-Europe in late June.

Rights

News

11 August 2000

Prague plans

The annual meetings of the World Bank and IMF will be the occasion for high-level official decision-making about the future of the institutions as well as protests and alternative discussions among civil society groups.

WB/IMF roles

News

11 August 2000

Köhler seeks focused, independent IMF

In May in his first public speech as the new head of the IMF, Horst K

Accountability

News

11 August 2000

G7 will impose their architecture agenda

G7 finance ministers in July reiterated their commitment to enforce their agenda without a commitment to address the needs of the poorest countries.

Rights

News

11 August 2000

Argentine anti-IMF protests

Argentine church leaders joined labour groups in late May to demonstrate against IMF economic policies.

Conditionality

News

11 August 2000

Mozambique sugar industry threatened

The IMF looks set to repeat mistakes which led to the demise of Mozambique’s cashew processing industry.

Infrastructure

News

11 August 2000

Indians protest at power price increases

Increased power tariffs as part of World Bank plans to privatize the power sector in Andhra Pradesh, India have sparked protests.

Conditionality

News

11 August 2000

Ecuadoreans protest against adjustment reforms

In June the Patriotic Front, a coalition of unions and grass-roots organizations, held a national strike to protest neoliberal economic policies promoted by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Knowledge

News

11 August 2000

Protests at UN collaboration with Bank and Fund

In June, 80 non-governmental organizations and people’s movements issued a joint statement condemning the UN’s involvement in a joint UN, WB, IMF and OECD report A Better World for All, released during the follow-up summit to the Copenhagen Social Summit held five years ago.

Rights

News

11 August 2000

Human Rights and Human Development

The United Nations Development Programmes annual Human Development Report, released in June, treats human rights as essential for development and sees development as a means to realize human rights.

Finance

News

11 August 2000

Oxfam report on poverty targets

Missing the Target reviews progress towards the international development targets for 2015, highlighting the danger that none of the targets will be met.

Finance

News

11 August 2000

Taming Global Finance

Financial liberalisation has created volatility in financial markets, threatening the orderly running of national economies.

News

11 August 2000

Finance for Development Agenda

The agenda for next year’s UN Conference on Finance For Development will cover 6 broad themes.

Accountability

News

11 August 2000

Kenya MPs urge aid halt over graft

In mid-July 64 Kenyan MPs signed a statement urging the IMF and World Bank to suspend discussions on new loans to their government after a select committee report into corruption was cut, deleting the names of some politicians and civil servants.

Conditionality

News

11 August 2000

London workshop on sustainability

In late May WWF and UK NGOs organised a workshop on National Strategies for Sustainable Development (NSSDs).

Knowledge

News

11 August 2000

Wolfensohn takes a break

Bank President James Wolfensohn announced in mid-July that he was taking a six week sabbatical.

Conditionality

News

11 August 2000

PRGF lending guidance discussions

IMF staff are discussing whether to release for external consultation a draft staff Guidance Note on its Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility.

IFI governance

News

11 August 2000

Committees to review selection of IFI heads

The Boards of the IMF and World Bank have each established working groups to review the processes for selecting the Managing Director and President of the respective institutions.

Conditionality

News

11 August 2000

US Congress rules against user fees

In July, the United States Congress passed legislation aiming to bar the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank from imposing “user fees” on primary health care and education on poor countries.

Rights

News

11 August 2000

Köhler go home say South Africans

In July South African activists told IMF Managing Director Horst K

Conditionality

News

11 August 2000

Turkish students in anti-IMF protest

Turkish students protested against the International Monetary Fund and the government’s austerity programme in May.

Social services

News

11 August 2000

Protests over Paraguay privatisation plans

In June, several protesters and journalists were injured after clashes with police in Asuncion, Paraguay, on the first day of a 48-hour general strike against plans to privatize telephone, water and railroad companies.

Conditionality

News

11 August 2000

Nigerian parliament rejects IMF

In July, the Nigerian House of Representatives adopted a non-binding motion urging the federal government to suspend all activities in respect of an IMF standby loan until the conditions were made public.

Conditionality

News

11 August 2000

Slovaks condemn WB-IMF collusion

Friends of the Earth Slovakia has complained about the World Bank’s requirement that the government agree a programme with the IMF before it can access Bank loans.

Finance

News

11 August 2000

New book on debt origins and impacts

Brazilian activist Marcos Arruda exposes the problems with his government’s economic policies and the role of the IMF in a new book.

Rights

News

11 August 2000

New collaborative Web plan

The Bretton Woods Project and other organisations have been discussing a new collaborative website to assemble documents and links on World Bank-related policy issues.

Rights

News

11 August 2000

Project office move, new grant

After four and a half years based in Christian Aid’s building in Waterloo the Bretton Woods Project has moved.

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