22 November 2004
A report released by NGOs ActionAid, Global AIDS Alliance, Student Global AIDs Campaign and RESULTS Educational Fund charges that IMF fiscal targets limit spending on HIV/AIDS programmes.
In 1982 more than 400 Maya Ach
The World Bank scorecard on borrowing country policies and institutions plays a key role in the allocation of overseas development assistance. Critics argue that the scorecard is a way to coerce borrowers into adopting the Bank's preferred model of economic development.
Rudolf Amenga-Etego of GrassrootsAfrica comments that the Ghanaian government must re-prioritise the national budget in favour of the water sector. However, this will only be possible if the international financial institutions are restrained.
The annual meetings drew to a close with little or no progress made on any of the substantive issues on the agenda. Long-time IFI watchers warned of a resurgence of the old ways of doing business at the Bank.
Released late September to coincide with the Bank and Fund annual meetings, the paper sets out the "UK government position on the use of conditions in effective partnerships for poverty reduction". Public comment is invited until the end of November and by early 2005 new guidelines for DFID staff are anticipated to put the new approach into practice
NGOs sent a letter to the new head of the MIGA outlining concerns about portfolio balance, insufficient transparency, and weak environmental and social oversight.
The World Bank's board of directors have just approved an investment guarantee for the US$590 million West Africa gas pipeline (WAGP). Civil society organisations in the region have focussed their concerns on violence and instability in the oil and gas communities of Nigeria’s Niger Delta, and the negative effects of gas flaring.
The development policy dialogue team is the principal point of contact for parliamentarians and parliamentary organizations at the World Bank. It runs their global parliamentary outreach and is based in the Vice Presidency for Europe. It was instrumental in the creation of PNoWB in 2000.
The IMF announced early October a new programme called the Policy Monitoring Arrangement (PMA) "which would be available to countries with sound policies that don't want to borrow from the IMF but see a benefit to frequent IMF statements to donors, creditors and the general public about the strength of their economic and financial policies".
Following two weeks of protests and road blocks that shut down the city of Cajamarca…
The Bank’s claim that the Chad-Cameroon oil and pipeline project proves that petro-dollars can benefit the poor is undermined by the claims of local communities and NGOs who cite numerous examples of violations of social and environmental safeguards.
In November the UK International Development Committee held its annual evidence session on the World Bank and IMF, questioning the UK government on issues including conditionality and parliamentary scrutiny of national development strategies.
The UK's Department for International Development has published an evaluation of the World Bank's work over the past three years.
Civil society organisations globally have stepped up their campaign against the International Finance Corporation's process to overhaul its safeguard policies.
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.
