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Bretton Woods Update 29

  • Jul/Aug 2002
  • PDF
  • Text
  • Past Issues

Knowledge

News

Counting the poor: do the poor count?

24 July 2002

Conditionality

News

Rebranding adjustment: the World Bank and “development policy support lending”

The World Bank has issued a discussion paper for consultation before revising its operational directive on adjustment lending. Concerns over changes to the ceiling on policy-based lending and a shift towards less mandatory directives, as well as the conultation process itself, have been raised by NGOs.

24 July 2002

Environment

News

Bank not responsible for “evident harm”

A Papuan NGO, the Center for Environmental Law and Community Rights, attempted to halt the release of a $17 million World Bank loan, claiming that the PNG government had failed to stop illegal logging and road construction, and that the Bank had failed to supervise compliance with the conditionalities.

24 July 2002

IFI governance

News

IMF chides former WB Chief Economist

At the launch of the new book of former WB Chief Economist Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents, IMF Director of Research, Ken Rogoff lashes out.

24 July 2002

Rights

News

Bank declaration of human rights

The World Bank president has asked his staff to prepare a human rights strategy, ending a long-standing aversion to engaging in the debate. But how far can the Bank go when its board and legal staff are urging extreme caution?

24 July 2002

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Advocacy Programs

  • Gender Equality & Macroeconomics project
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World Bank & IMF in the news

IFI governance

News

24 July 2002

Bank launches trade tome

The release of Development, Trade and the WTO: A Handbook signals the World Bank’s rapidly increasing involvement in trade issues, triggering fears that its policy biases will gain too influential a foothold.

Knowledge

News

24 July 2002

Empowerment sourcebook

The Bank has recently begun to recognise evidence of links between peoples’ empowerment, growth and improved project performance.

Infrastructure

News

24 July 2002

Doubts strengthen on private power provision

Despite corporate scandals and increasing wariness of private investors of getting involved in power projects in developing countries, the Bank is tripling its funding of power projects. Two new reports from the Transnational Insitute and the World Resources Institute challenge the claims of the advocates of power liberalisation.

IFI governance

News

24 July 2002

ILO Africa Director rebukes WB and IMF

Africa Regional Director for the ILO, Regina Amadi-Njoku, at a trade union conference in Nairobi, said globalisation was responsible for the decline of Africa’s status in the global economy.

IFI governance

News

24 July 2002

WB, parliamentarians meet in Switzerland

Around two hundred parliamentarians from Europe, Asia and Africa gathered in Switzerland.

IFI governance

News

24 July 2002

Bank pilots new disclosure initiative

Some 17 countries are about to embark on pilot programs with the World Bank in which they will disclose and disseminate more information than they have in the past - more than Bank policy requires.

Accountability

News

24 July 2002

Bank’s pledge to fight corruption put to test

Allegations of corruption made against Bank-backed projects in Lesotho, Uganda and Kenya have raised questions about the Bank’s recent anti-corruption crusade. A report from Mozambique complains that the Bank is rewarding “good performance” by allowing corruption.

Finance

News

24 July 2002

IDA grants-loans controversy ends

A deal between the US and Europe means that 18 to 21 per cent of the World Bank’s International Development Association aid will now come in the form of grants rather than loans.

Finance

News

24 July 2002

G8: “Absolutely zilch” for Africa

Civil society organizations were disappointed by the outcome of talks at the G8 summit in Canada on an Africa Action Plan, HIPC and education.

Social services

News

24 July 2002

EU should hand over education funds to WB

The GCE held a meeting 29 May in Brussels on the role of the EU in delivering the international education goals, bringing together Education Ministers from Niger, Guatemala and Bangladesh, civil society representatives and donors.

Social services

News

24 July 2002

WB municipal mission creep

The World Bank is linking staff at municipal governments in a dozen cities in Central America and the Caribbean.

Land

News

24 July 2002

What was IMF role in Malawi famine?

The worst famine in fifty years has resulted in several thousand deaths in Malawi in early 2002.

Conditionality

News

24 July 2002

IMF fiddles while Argentina burns

A synthesis of the last two months in the ongoing negotiations between the IMF and the Argentine government.

Private Sector

News

24 July 2002

BP mega oil project may get “big bucks” from WB

Despite threats to the environment and fears of over-dependence on oil market vagaries, BP may receive as much as $500 million from the World Bank to build an 1,100 mile trans-Caucasus pipeline.

Environment

News

24 July 2002

Finance issues key to sustainability summit success

After a preparatory conference in Bali cast doubt over what will be achieved at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August, Third World Network is calling on groups working on debt, trade and finance to monitor the WSSD process.

Environment

News

24 July 2002

Forest Policy "fails to address deforestation"

NGOs working on forest issues have charged that the Bank's revised draft Forest Strategy ignores advice given by both civil society and the Bank’s own Technical Advisory Group.

WB/IMF roles

News

24 July 2002

Globalisation network’s democratic alternatives

The International Forum on Globalisation, a network of activists and intellectuals from around the world, has published a new report.

Rights

News

24 July 2002

Book gives platform to activists

A new book sets out the demands and analytical positions of many of the protesters against economic globalisation.

Conditionality

News

24 July 2002

Ugandan MP denounces Bank/Fund prescriptions

Ugandan MP Sheila Mishembi Kawamara, at a 5 June meeting of East African legislative members, said that countries such as China, Mauritius, Vietnam and Thailand had refused to take World Bank and IMF prescriptions and their economies were thriving.

Accountability

News

24 July 2002

Indonesian MPs: write-off IMF loans

One hundred members of the Indonesian parliament wrote to the heads of the IMF and World Bank, condemning the institutions for implementing “disastrous orthodox macroeconomic policies”.

IFI governance

News

24 July 2002

10 Reasons to Abolish the IMF and World Bank

US campaign group Global Exchange has published a pamphlet setting out ten reasons why the IMF and World Bank should be closed down.

IFI governance

News

24 July 2002

IMF boss grilled by British MPs

On 4 July, IMF chief Horst K

Rights

News

24 July 2002

ABCDcEnsure

A study arguing against a link between terrorism and poverty was pulled at the last minute from the agenda of the Annual Bank Conference on Development Economics in response to complaints from a Kuwaiti Executive Director.

Rights

News

24 July 2002

NGOs criticise the Bank’s water strategy

The Bank’s draft Water Resources Sector Strategy has been faulted by critics for distorting the findings of the World Commission on Dams, continuing to support high-cost megaprojects and emphasizing privatisation.

More news

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