2 February 2004
Recent involvement in countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq has put the World Bank and the IMF work post-conflict in the spotlight, with serious implications for their mandates and work methods.
In mid-January the report of the Extractive Industries Review was tabled, containing many strong criticisms of the Bank's record in the oil, gas and mining sector and a series of detailed recommendations.
An official review has echoed many external criticisms of the World Bank's knowledge roles, but has buried some of the most important feedback from officials and researchers in the South. A recent study by the World Bank's Operations Evaluation Department found significant problems with the Bank's self-appointed role as guardian and dissseminator of the world's development knowledge, but produced only extremely bureaucratic conclusions which do not match the degree or nature of the concerns expr
Despite its failure to improve forest management, the World Bank has released further funding to the Cambodian government. NGOs argue that this shows that the Bank is not serious about social and environmental issues. The Bank's anti-corruption credentials are also in doubt as it has awarded a contract for forest monitoring to a company with convictions for bribery.
Organised by the UK Department for International Development, the World Bank, IMF and UNDP, a two-day conference held in London 8-9 December gathered officials, agency representatives and academics to discuss the links between trade, growth and poverty. The objective of the conference was to provide direction on how to integrate trade into national development strategies.
Human rights activists in Andhra Pradesh have strongly objected to World Bank plans for a new economic reform loan to the state government.
The IFC committed $20 million to an industrial park in a Haitian free trade zone on 15 January, after an independent investigator found that "the project deserves continued strong support given its development impact, even if some wrongdoing was demonstrated."
The Parliamentary Network on the World Bank (PNoWB) will hold its annual conference February 15-16 in Paris. Oversight of relations between governments, the IMF and the Bank by legislators is still insufficient in the North and in the South.
Top researchers met in Washington last October to discuss the 'state of the art' in…
Some of the recommendations made in the diagnostic studies of the Integrated Framework touch upon sensitive areas in development policy such as privatisation, trade liberalisation and investment and competition policy.
Over 100,000 participants were drawn to this year's World Social Forum (WSF) in Mumbai, 16 - 21 January. Held on an enormous industrial complex in the north of the city, the panels, workshops, and cultural displays were held in hangars previously used as stage sets and ad-hoc tents. Innumerable marches poured through the streets outside, powerfully illustrating the depth of grassroots organising in India.
Despite the negative comments in the official evaluation of the Knowledge Bank, the World Bank's Development Gateway internet scheme is seeking 40 million of further public funding. The Gateway is an Internet portal on development issues through which users can access studies and information, exchange services. It has been criticised since its inception for being poorly conceived and executed and representing unfair competition to the many independent sites which existed previously.
At the 80th anniversary of the World Bank and IMF, global civil society must maintain pressure on the Brazilian and South African G20 presidencies to ensure the forth Financing for Development Conference in 2025 results in urgently required international financial architecture reform.
