28 May 2004
The extent to which efforts to review conditionality represent a desire for better implementation rather than a fundamental re-examination of the impact of policy conditions remains unclear.
A new initiative to rewrite the rules of engagement with the IMF could mark the biggest change in creditor-debtor relations in a generation.
Since 1996 the World Bank President has emphasised his institution’s roles as a “knowledge bank“. But just as one person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter, what some see as knowledge is viewed by others as propaganda for a particular world view.
Civil society groups welcome the intention but not the detail of a new IMF, World Bank framework for assessing countries’ debts and their potential to take on new lending.
At hearings in the US Senate commentators criticised World Bank anti-corruption activities and proposed new approaches.
The world's most powerful governments are assessing the roles of international financial insitutions.
Brazilian NGOs challenge proposed World Bank Group support for soya farming in the Amazon region.
A coalition of NGOs led by International Rivers Network has raised alarm bells that a proposed World Bank middle income country strategy will seriously weaken policies meant to protect vulnerable groups and the environment.
Gender has been incorporated within the framework of standard macroeconomic and sector policies.
Thirty-four union members at a free-trade zone plant financed by the IFC - laid off for over six weeks - were reinstated on 14 April.
The African Economic Research Consortium has been awarded the contract by the sub-saharan African Executive Directors at the Bank and Fund to act as the commissioning agent for the Analytical Trust Fund.
A special publication by the National Alliance of Peoples' Movements India features a range of critical articles on international financial institutions.
The World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, is conducting a review of its 1998 Policy on Disclosure of Information.
Unsurprisingly, former Spanish Finance Minister Rodrigo Rato was confirmed as Managing Director of the IMF in a mock voting procedure on 4 May. Disappointment was widespread that the Fund had failed to end the stitch-up that allows Europe to nominate the Fund's head.
On 20 April, the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank launched a working group on international trade.
The World Bank’s president made interesting statements on human rights and climate change. But he was not specific and he asserted brashly that his institution has not harmed indigenous people since he has been in charge.
The World Bank Operations Evaluation Department's plan for an evaluation of Bank assistance on trade shies away from many of the key issues according to ChristianAid.
With much fanfare, the Board of the IMF approved the Trade Integration Mechanism in April, a new insurance policy to entice developing countries back to the multilateral trade table.
Understanding the Bank’s chequered history with public, community and civil society participation is key for understanding what is at stake and what to do next.
New paper analyses the IMF 16th Quota Review and identifies key governance reforms feasible in the current economic and geopolitical context.
