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Bretton Woods Update 20

  • Dec 2000
  • PDF
  • Text
  • Past Issues

Infrastructure

News

World Commission report has far-reaching implications

12 December 2000

On 16 November the World Commission on Dams (WCD) launched its final report.

Rights

News

Indigenous policy dilution threat

The World Bank’s revised Indigenous Peoples Policy will be released in draft early in 2001 for further consultations.

12 December 2000

Conditionality

News

New UK child poverty initiative

UK Chancellor, Gordon Brown, and Clare Short, Secretary of State for International Development, are planning a “Child Poverty Initiative”.

12 December 2000

IFI governance

News

Study on strategic issues for development banks

A wide-ranging new study overviews the strategic framework for the future of the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs).

12 December 2000

Conditionality

News

Tanzanian NGOs criticise PRSP

The Government of Tanzania’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) was endorsed by the IMF and WB Boards in early December despite claims from Tanzanian NGOs that the consultative process was inadequate.

12 December 2000

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Advocacy Programs

  • Gender Equality & Macroeconomics project
  • Environmental advocacy

World Bank & IMF in the news

Knowledge

News

12 December 2000

Trade and poverty dispute

At a Poverty and the International Economy conference in Stockholm in late October a draft Trade, Growth and Poverty paper by senior World Bank researcher David Dollar was strongly criticized by Dani Rodrik of Harvard University.

IFI governance

News

12 December 2000

Wanted: director for new evaluation unit

The IMF Board has selected Ray & Berndstson, a US-based international executive search firm, to identify candidates for the position of Director of the IMF’s new independent Evaluation Office (EVO).

Accountability

News

12 December 2000

Corrupt Bank staff sacked

The World Bank has sacked three staff members after an investigation revealed they had accepted bribes from several Swedish companies in return for steering contracts worth US$900,000 to the firms.

News

12 December 2000

New IMF development dictionary

The IMF has a handy new multilingual dictionary on its website.

Accountability

News

12 December 2000

Accountability workshop materials

New resource books have been produced by the Rights and Records Institute following concern that reforms to support accountability in developing countries were being pushed through by the donor community with little opportunity for the people of the countries themselves to express their views.

News

12 December 2000

El Salvador to dollarise

El Salvador is planning to make the US dollar legal tender in January as part of efforts to strengthen the country’s economy.

IFI governance

News

12 December 2000

Development framework assessed

The Operations Evaluation Department (OED) has released working papers on the Comprehensive Development Framework (CDF).

Rights

News

12 December 2000

Seattle remembered at IMF protests

Activists and NGOs in Washington marked the first anniversary of the Seattle-WTO protests by holding a counter-reception outside the IMF’s headquarters during the formal opening of its new visitor center.

IFI governance

News

12 December 2000

Bretton Woods summit on Dutch coast

Many people have discussed at different times the idea of organizing a new, alternative Bretton Woods summit to update the one of 1944 which gave rise to the World Bank and IMF.

Environment

News

12 December 2000

PNG forest moratorium in question

The moratorium on issuing new logging concessions in Papua New Guinea is possibly under threat.

Rights

News

12 December 2000

New “Net the debt” site

OneWorld has launched DebtChannel.org, a global portal site on international debt.

Environment

News

12 December 2000

UK MPs scrutinise World Bank

UK parliamentarians held two hearings on the World Bank in November.

Private Sector

News

12 December 2000

Let them drink Coke

The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a private sector arm of the World Bank Group announced that it is collaborating with the European Union to provide a $23.

Private Sector

News

12 December 2000

World Bank arm seeks more transparency

The International Finance Corporation is to press companies in which it invests to improve the rights of their minority shareholders and make their financial statements more transparent.

Environment

News

12 December 2000

IFC Jordon project complaint

On 30 November Friends of the Earth Middle East lodged a complaint on the International Finance Corporation (IFC)’s role in the Jordan Gateway Industrial Estate Project.

Land

News

12 December 2000

Bank land reforms contested

A petition to the World Bank on market-based land reform has been prepared by Via Campesina (an international peasants movement) and FIAN (a human rights group).

IFI governance

News

12 December 2000

Participation review: mixed feelings

A forthcoming official report on participation in Bank-supported activities indicates that more Bank operations are participatory , but often with limited impact.

Rights

News

12 December 2000

Andhra protesters oppose LPG

In Hyderabad, India 20 political leaders and demonstrators were arrested for defying police orders prohibiting demonstrations during Bank President James Wolfensohn’s arrival in November.

Infrastructure

News

12 December 2000

Bank president faces Narmada activists

In October the Indian Supreme Court ruled that construction could restart on the Sardar Sarovar dam.

Rights

News

12 December 2000

Labour representatives meet World Bank

In late October 60 labour organization representatives met World Bank and IMF staff to discuss trade union issues.

Social services

News

12 December 2000

Panama Bay scheme alert

An NGO concerned about a project that will cause irreversible damage to Panama Bay is calling for international support.

News

12 December 2000

Africa Partnership

UK Prime Minister Tony Blair is also promoting an “Africa Partnership Initiative”.

Environment

News

12 December 2000

Chadian president spends pipeline windfall on arms

In June the World Bank agreed to back the Chad Cameroon oil pipeline, despite serious reservations from civil society groups in Chad and around the world.

News

12 December 2000

World Bank anthropologists: code of conduct call

World Bank operations often use anthropologists and other social experts for studies which precede their development programs.

Accountability

News

12 December 2000

Mexican NGOs demand transparency

In November Mexican civil society networks greeted incoming president, Vincente Fox, with a letter calling for greater transparency and accountability in the country’s decision making processes.

Conditionality

News

12 December 2000

Argentine bail-out causes more hardship

After weeks of jockeying by the Argentinian government, the IMF and the US Treasury Department finally agreed to provide $18 billion to bailout Argentina’s troubled economy in November.

Conditionality

News

12 December 2000

US rejects user fees

The US government has been forced to adopt legislation requiring it to oppose IMF and WB loans, which contain conditions for the imposition of user fees for primary education or primary health care.

Finance

News

12 December 2000

Turkey in crisis

Turkey is the latest country to be overcome by financial crisis.

Conditionality

News

12 December 2000

IMF and WB conditionalities may be kept secret

As consultations on the World Bank’s disclosure policy move ahead, the Bank has taken steps which allow governments to withhold essential information to country stakeholders.

Accountability

News

12 December 2000

Disllusionment with democracy

The IMF and WB are partly to blame for the growing disillusionment with democracy in Latin America, according to analysis in Political Democracy and Unfulfilled Aspirations by Fernando Carvalho, Institute of Economics, University of Rio de Janeiro.

Conditionality

News

12 December 2000

Reflections on Kenyan PRSP process

NGOs in Kenya are highly critical that the Poverty Reduction Strategy process did not fully involve NGOs, was dominated by the Bank and IMF and was not poverty focussed.

Conditionality

News

12 December 2000

New PRSP booklet

World Vision has produced a useful critique of the PRSP process and the IMF and World Bank’s role within it, PRSPs: Good News for the Poor? The booklet offers some helpful suggestions to the Bank and IMF to improve the PRSP process.

Knowledge

News

12 December 2000

Battle for Internet visibility moves forward

The Bretton Woods Project has continued to work with others to contest the World Bank’s plan for a new Global Development Gateway (GDG).

News

12 December 2000

Project celebrates five years

The Bretton Woods Project celebrated its fifth anniversary in November.

News

12 December 2000

Feedback Wanted

A survey this summer and discussions with colleagues from other countries revealed that the Bretton Woods Update is circulated widely among NGOs, journalists and policy-makers.

Infrastructure

News

12 December 2000

Ugandan dam concerns

Ugandan and international NGOs have written to the head of the IFC to raise concerns about its planned support for the Bujagali Falls dam.

More news

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4 October 2022

The Bretton Woods Observer: Autumn 2022

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