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Bretton Woods Update 23

  • Jun/Jul 2001
  • PDF
  • Text
  • Past Issues

IFI governance

News

“NGO pressure” vital in private sector changes

18 June 2001

The International Finance Corporation - an arm of the Bank Group which supports private investment - has released a new strategy.

Social services

News

Privatisation of water not “pro-poor”, NGOs warn

Ghanaian and international groups raise concerns about Bank-backed plans to privatise metropolitan water supply.

18 June 2001

Social services

News

Global health fund debated

A new global fund to combat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria will be administered by the World Bank in collaboration with WHO and UNAIDS.

18 June 2001

Conditionality

News

PRSPs just PR say civil society groups

Two new civil society statements have concluded that the PRSP process is simply delivering repackaged structural adjustment programmes (SAPs).

18 June 2001

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World Bank & IMF in the news

Infrastructure

News

18 June 2001

Letter on Bujagali dam, Uganda

Concerns raised about planned World Bank-backed private sector dam in Uganda.

Infrastructure

News

18 June 2001

Nigerians condemn IFC collaboration with Shell

Niger Delta-based organisations outraged over pending World Bank loan for a joint project with Shell Oil in Nigeria, saying IFC favours profitability over local environmental and social concerns.

Environment

News

18 June 2001

Chad Cameroon arrest

Yorongar Ngarlejy arrested, supporters urge halt to Bank-backed oil project.

Finance

News

18 June 2001

African leaders speak out against donors

At a forum in Lagos Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo accused the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and creditor nations of being unfair to developing countries trying to repay crippling external debts, reports Reuters (17/5/01).

IFI governance

Analysis

18 June 2001

A Tower of Babel on the internet?

Critical report on the World Bank’s major new internet initiative, the Development Gateway.

Land

News

18 June 2001

World Bank land reform strategy disputed

A new report from US campaign group Food First assesses the World Bank’s approach to land reform.

Social services

News

18 June 2001

Demanding Dignity

A new report - Demanding Dignity: Women Confronting Economic Reforms in Africa - from the North-South Institute, Canada, examines African women’s struggles to deal with gender-bias in financial and economic policies.

Infrastructure

News

18 June 2001

Nigerians condemn IFC collaboration with Shell

IFC plans for a joint project with the Shell oil company in Nigeria have been condemned by Niger Delta-based community organisations and international human rights groups.

Environment

News

18 June 2001

New briefings on Bank policy revisions

Forest Peoples’ Programme has produced three new briefings on World Bank policy reformulation processes.

Finance

Background

18 June 2001

Capital Account Liberalization and Poverty:

Summary of a discussion hosted by the Heinrich B

Finance

News

18 June 2001

Go with the flows?

A meeting, organised by Bretton Woods Project and Heinrich B

Rights

News

18 June 2001

Adjustment Directive consultation process still unknown

During the Spring Meetings NGOs had a disappointing meeting with Joanne Salop, Vice President for Operations Policy and Strategy.

Conditionality

News

18 June 2001

Pakistanis walk out from WB “consultation”

NGOs, CBOs and academics walked out from the World Bank’s so-called “public consultation” on its Country Assistance Strategy on May 17th.

Conditionality

News

18 June 2001

Analysing poverty impacts

At their Spring Meetings the IMF and World Bank outlined plans to carry out social impact analyses when designing macroeconomic and structural reforms.

Conditionality

News

18 June 2001

New adjustment credit guidelines revealed

Impact assessments and participatory monitoring and evaluation processes will be key features of the World Bank’s new Poverty Reduction Support Credit (PRSC) according to guidelines.

Conditionality

News

18 June 2001

Russian advisors get new jobs

Martin Gilman, former IMF Moscow representative, has been hired to teach economics by the Russian state-funded Higher School of Economics, while Anders Aslund, the one-time consultant and promoter of Russian privatisation, has been appointed to a World Bank team investigating the success of such programmes.

Social services

News

18 June 2001

PRSPs still promote privatisation

Analysis of four completed PRSPs and twelve Interim PRSPs by World Development Movement finds that civil society groups are dissatisfied with the extent of public involvement and that IMF and Bank influence is weakening government ownership.

IFI governance

News

18 June 2001

Headhunting policy updated

The joint draft report from the Executive Board Working Groups reviewing the leadership selection processes of the World Bank and IMF recommends that candidates could be nationals of any member country, and that Executive Directors should agree on a shortlist and make an appointment by consensus.

IFI governance

News

18 June 2001

Progress with IMF evaluation unit

Mr Montek Ahluwalia, a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India, has been appointed Director of the IMF’s new Independent Evaluation Office (EVO).

WB/IMF roles

News

18 June 2001

IMF announces new staff after three go

After IMF Economic Counsellor Michael Mussa’s resignation in March, two other senior IMF staff announced their plans to leave.

Finance

News

18 June 2001

IMF and WB wanted for fraud

Protesters carrying placards proclaiming “Africa Needs Liberation Not Charity” and “the Debt is a Fraud” gathered outside World Bank offices in London on 26 May to mark African Liberation Day.

Rights

News

18 June 2001

Indigenous leaders angry at World Bank, IMF

World Bank and IMF policies harm indigenous communities around the world and are a new form of colonisation, said delegates to the First Millennium Conference of Indigenous Peoples, held in Panama in May.

Knowledge

News

18 June 2001

Bank ponders poverty report implementation

A recent Bank document sets out the plan for implementing the conclusions of the Poverty World Development Report (WDR).

IFI governance

News

18 June 2001

Study urges overhaul of international institutions

A new study from the United Nations University (UNU), an autonomous UN institution based in Tokyo, calls for an overhaul of international institutions.

IFI governance

News

18 June 2001

A Tower of Babel on the Internet? The World Bank’s Development Gateway: Summary

A Tower of Babel on the Internet? The World Bank’s Development Gateway: Summary

Knowledge

News

18 June 2001

Bank response to Tower of Babel briefing

This is a World Bank response to the Bretton Woods Project briefing, A Tower of Babel on the Internet.

Knowledge

News

18 June 2001

Response to the Gateway team

Bretton Woods Project response to John Garrison of the Gateway team.

Knowledge

News

18 June 2001

10 problems with the World Bank Development Gateway

1. The Gateway’s Topic structure reflects an aim to organise development-related information in a way that is convenient for people who see the world through official development lenses.

Knowledge

News

18 June 2001

Development Gateway launch courts controversy

The World Bank will launch its Development Gateway internet initiative on 23 July.

Knowledge

News

18 June 2001

World Bank warned: don’t meddle with media

In a World Bank consultation on the role of the media in development, Bank officials were told to stay away from media training and other direct influence over journalists.

IFI governance

News

18 June 2001

World Bank intensifies trade work, but cancels conference

The World Bank has pledged to “intensify its trade-related activities” by increasing its research, training and advocacy at global and country levels.

IFI governance

News

18 June 2001

World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings 2001

The Bretton Woods Project website will feature summaries and analysis of issues and background papers in preparation for and during the annual meetings.

Conditionality

News

18 June 2001

Bolivian civil society sidelined in PRSP process

About seventy civil society organisations in Bolivia have signed a statement detailing concerns with the consultation and drafting process for the country’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper.

Conditionality

News

18 June 2001

Slimmer IMF but fatter Bank

The IMF’s efforts to streamline itself are likely to make little difference to countries implementing Bank and IMF programmes.

Finance

News

18 June 2001

Reality check on debt

A new report from Drop the Debt argues that the World Bank and IMF can afford to cancel in full the debts of the poorest countries without putting at risk their finances.

Conditionality

News

18 June 2001

Malawian NGOs recommend PRSP improvements

Following a successful bid to extend the PRSP process in Malawi, the Malawi Economic Justice Network has appraised the process with a view to informing and improving the next stages.

IFI governance

News

18 June 2001

Environment reviews question Bank performance

Two new official reviews examine the World Bank’s efforts to protect the environment.

More news

Featured briefings

Protest at COP27, celebrated in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt in November 2022. Credit: Oliver Kornblihtt / Mídia NINJA
3 October 2023

Assessing the Bretton Woods Institutions’ legacy

New collection of critical essays by authors from MENA and Sub-Saharan Africa do a retrospective of the BWIs involvement in the region, and the legacy of BWIs-supported unjust and extractionist world economic order.

Protest at COP27, celebrated in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt in November 2022. Credit: Oliver Kornblihtt / Mídia NINJA
2 October 2023

Reconceptualising Special Drawing Rights as a tool for development finance

Briefing examines the shortcomings of the current SDRs allocation system and calls to reform SDRs to ensure their targeted, needs-based and equitable distribution. 

Anti IMF loan protest in downtown, Cairo, 2012. Credit: Gigi Ibrahim / Flickr
27 September 2023

Financialisation and human rights in the Middle East and North Africa

This briefing explains how the IMF and World Bank have driven the financialisation of MENA states, and the pervasive negative effects this has had on the region’s societies and economies.

More briefings

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