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Bretton Woods Update 26

  • Jan/Feb 2002
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  • Past Issues

Land

News

Brown’s “New Deal” suggests enhanced Bank, Fund roles

5 February 2002

Gordon Brown’s recent speeches on a “New Deal” for the global economy have been generally welcomed, especially for their suggestions that aid budgets should be increased.

Infrastructure

News

Bank plans private sector shake-up

In February the World Bank’s Board will consider a new Private Sector Development Strategy.

17 January 2002

Rights

News

World Bank role in Afghanistan unclear

After the first two donor conferences on the reconstruction of Afghanistan - in Islamabad in November and in Brussels in December - some people worry that reconstruction funds could easily be misused and fuel continued civil strife.

17 January 2002

Conditionality

News

Divergent views on PRSP progress

A new report compiled from workshops organised by Jubilee South, Focus on the Global South and other southern civil society groups claims structural adjustment logic and policies essentially remain unchanged in PRSPs.

17 January 2002

Knowledge

News

Bank staff criticise “thought police”

The World Bank’s clumsy attempts to censor its own researchers have resulted in stinging criticism by Bank staff.

1 January 2002

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Advocacy Programs

  • Gender Equality & Macroeconomics project
  • Environmental advocacy

World Bank & IMF in the news

Rights

News

17 January 2002

Doing well out of war

The importance of economic agendas in contemporary conflicts has been the focus of a series of recent papers by Paul Collier, Director of the Bank’s Development Research Group.

Knowledge

News

17 January 2002

Bank prepares major report for sustainability summit

A World Bank team is currently preparing the next World Development Report which will be launched at the World Summit on Sustainable Development this September.

Environment

News

17 January 2002

Vietnam mangrove forests

The World Bank’s role in damaging or endangering the mangrove forests of Vietnam (and their inhabitants) has been the subject of an article and exchange of letters in the Bulletin of the World Rainforest Movement.

Environment

News

17 January 2002

Extractive Industries Review gets harsh reception

NGOs say the World Bank’s Extractive Industries Review (EIR), launched at a workshop in Brussels at the end of October, has severe shortcomings.

Environment

News

17 January 2002

Arrests of Tanzania mine activists

In late November the Tanzanian authorities took action against an organisation which has been investigating the death and dispersal of artisanal miners at a project backed by the World Bank Group.

WB/IMF roles

News

17 January 2002

Rethinking development economics

Development economics needs to be revived “not as a “deviant” branch of mainstream economics, but as a subject that can aid our understanding of the acute problems typically faced by developing countries,” concluded a meeting organised by UNRISD and Ford Foundation in South Africa.

Conditionality

News

17 January 2002

Bank not living up to promises to dialogue

Two civil society groups have criticised the World Bank for failing to live up to its promise of working more with communities affected by its policies and operations.

Accountability

Analysis

17 January 2002

Bank and Fund take on terror

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund appear to have carved out roles for themselves in the “international war against terrorism” through their institutional framework (November 2001).

Rights

News

17 January 2002

Critics respond to Bank demands

The World Bank and anti-globalisation activists have now traded three rounds of demands and counter-demands since September this year.

Finance

News

17 January 2002

“It Takes Two to Tango”

This report by Jubilee Plus aims to raise debate on “the legal mechanisms” for making debt standstill mechanisms work.

Finance

News

17 January 2002

Investment rules website

The International Investment Rules Project has launched a new website and list-serve dedicated to providing coverage, critique, and links to the emerging rule-making and governance of investment in international, regional and bilateral investment rules and markets.

Finance

News

17 January 2002

Standstill and insolvency: a new mechanism for the IMF?

18 December 2001 - In a surprise anouncement in late November the new number two at the IMF, Ann Krueger, has proposed that the IMF should support temporary debt standstills for indebted countries.

Finance

News

17 January 2002

IMF proposes new debt standstill mechanism

In late November the new number two at the IMF, Ann Krueger, proposed that the IMF should support temporary debt standstills for indebted countries.

Finance

News

17 January 2002

World Bank grants plan “crazy”

Disagreements between donors about how much grant money the Bank should give to the poorest countries has held up replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA), Bank’s soft-lending arm.

Infrastructure

News

17 January 2002

Bank shuns dialogue results

Two civil society groups have criticised the World Bank for failing to live up to its promise of working more with communities affected by its policies and operations.

Rights

News

17 January 2002

World Bank-led meeting on Afghanistan causes concern in Pakistan

By Shahid Husain, Freelance journalist, Karachi, and Charlotte Carlsson, Communications & research officer, Bretton Woods Project

Trade

News

17 January 2002

WTO rejects Africans’ request for study of SAP effects before more tariff cuts

The proposal by seven African countries that the World Trade Organisation (WTO study the impacts of trade liberalisation measures imposed by structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) before launching another round of tariff-cutting negotiations has been ignored.

Environment

News

17 January 2002

Tanzanian authorities attempt to silence activists on Bulyanhulu case

Tanzanian authorities have arrested Rugemeleza Nshala, President of the Lawyers Environmental Action Team (LEAT), and raided the house of another LEAT lawyer, Tundu Lissu in connection with their investigations into abuses and irregularities at the World Bank-backed Bulyanhulu gold mine.

IFI governance

News

17 January 2002

IMF Evaluation Office announces programme

After putting its first proposed work programme to public consultation, the new IMF Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) has revealed the topics it will investigate in 2002.

Accountability

News

1 January 2002

Gateway claim denied

The power and control problems associated with the World Bank’s “knowledge” agenda are confirmed by the recent response to the anti-corruption claim filed on the Bank’s Development Gateway internet scheme.

Social services

News

1 January 2002

Bank steps up journalist training

At the World Water Forum, Bonn, the World Bank distributed flyers advertising a training programme for journalists running up to the World Water Forum 2003.

Finance

News

1 January 2002

IMF shares blame for Argentina’s collapse

Many eyes are now looking to see how Argentina will manage its financial and political crises.

Finance

News

1 January 2002

Turkey’s political reward

Despite being in similar difficulties to Argentina and resistant to IMF-advocated structural reforms, IMF Managing Director, Horst K

Finance

News

1 January 2002

Tax investors to finance bailouts

An alternative proposal to debt standstill is to create larger bailout funds.

Environment

News

1 January 2002

Call to cease forestry lending overruled

The Centre for Environmental Law and Community Rights (CELCOR) in Papua New Guinea filed, in early December, a claim to the World Bank inspection panel after illegal logging made some 300 landowners “lose their land and forests through bad forest governance”.

Conditionality

News

1 January 2002

Link budget to PRSP

The budget in Zambia should be linked to poverty reduction priorities, urged the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCPJ) in a statement submitted to the government in October 2001.

Conditionality

News

1 January 2002

PRSP monitoring unit established

The Overseas Development Institute (ODI) has set up a PRSP Monitoring and Synthesis Project.

Conditionality

Analysis

1 January 2002

Bank and Fund watchers must watch WTO

As the World Bank and the IMF inch closer towards streamlining their policies with those of the WTO, and vice-versa, a Bretton Woods Briefing discusses why Bank and Fund watchers should keep a close eye on the WTO negotiations (November 2001) .

Rights

News

1 January 2002

Book examines World Bank campaigns

Civil society work on the international financial institutions is analysed in a new book.

Infrastructure

News

1 January 2002

Ugandan dam approved

In late December the World Bank approved the Bujagali dam, Uganda.

Environment

News

1 January 2002

Database on “dirty” Bank projects

A new database catalogues World Bank projects since 1992 which have involved fossil fuels.

IFI governance

News

1 January 2002

New UK ED at Bank and Fund

Tom Scholar has replaced Stephen Pickford as the UK’s Executive Director at the World Bank and IMF.

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