16 February 2009
Eduardo Gudynas argues that the financial crisis reveals a profound crisis of the multilateral governing system.
The IMF and the World Bank derive their income mainly from their lending operations, charging borrowing countries, and from their investments in financial markets.
Annual Bretton Woods Project award for the most incomprehensible or absurd use of language in a Bank or Fund document or speech.
The first signs of a promised dramatic increase in World Bank lending are emerging, but critics continue to attack the Bank’s lending practices, including its controversial use of conditionality.
The financial crisis has shrunk credit availability to the private sector, including in developing countries. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) plans to step into the gap, but there are questions about the likely development impact and implementation of environmental and social safeguards.
Recommendations from Bretton Woods Project staff on the best papers, books and electronic resources of 2008.
What roles should twenty first century international financial institutions (IFIs) play, and how should they be structured? This paper sets out some of the key issues that would need to be resolved at a second UN monetary and financial conference - a 'Bretton Woods 2' - and discusses the road ahead.
Inspection Panel reports relating to Albania and Uganda expose World Bank non-compliance in a number of areas. These findings are compounded by allegations of corruption and the obstruction of the Inspection Panel investigation.
Recent UN global climate negotiations in Poland highlighted ongoing tension over whether funds will be channelled through the United Nations or the World Bank and once again shone a light on the role of the Bank as a major investor in carbon intensive projects.
After years of playing an ever diminishing role in Latin America, the IMF and the World Bank are in pursuit of a resurgence in the region.
The IFIs are gaining prominence but also attracting renewed criticism. In a series of articles we cover the political response to the financial crisis, the IMF's lending, the World Bank's boost in lending and proposals for reform of the international architecture.
While the IMF undertakes high-speed reviews into its lending instruments and conditionality, it continues to make crisis loans with heavy conditionality that may adversely impact the poor in developing countries.
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.
