Bretton Woods Observer
Undemocratic gentleman’s agreement will further challenge next IMF managing director
EU countries’ backing of Kristalina Georgieva for a second term as IMF Managing Director will likely set in motion the next steps towards her reappointment, representing another lost opportunity to reform IMF governance.
Better ways to reduce the pain of debt crises for developing countries?
Amid challenging global conditions, proposals to address liquidity issues must be urgently matched by a reformed, development-focused international financial architecture.
IDA21: Moving beyond a focus on ‘historic’ replenishment
Calls for a ‘historic’ IDA21 replenishment risk diverting attention from the policy framework necessary for IDA to support countries to…
Beyond the World Bank: The fight for universal social protection in the Global South
The World Bank Group promotes a model of social protection via poverty-targeted programmes that are error-strewn and can cause social…
Opportunity lost: World Bank’s Roadmap fails to chart path to better development outcomes
Civil society renews calls for an independent external evaluation of Bank policies ahead of Spring Meetings’ focus on the operationalisation of the Roadmap and a ‘historic’ IDA21 replenishment.
Sri Lanka’s continued debt crisis highlights urgent need for wider reform
Sri Lanka’s inability to avoid its 17th IMF programme, and its catastrophic human rights consequences, adds to evidence of IMF and international system’s failure to adequately respond to the worsening debt crisis and urgent need for debt cancellation and systemic reform.
Another day, another IFC scandal
A Telegraph exposé unveils how a private hospital group in India which received £120 million in IFC investment since 2005 was running an illegal organ trading scheme, adding to a growing number of IFC-funded scandals.
Indonesia JETP’s promotion of renewable energy privatisation opposed by unions and civil society
Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership bears the clear handprint of the World Bank’s private-sector led approach to power sectors in the Global South, creating opposition from unions and civil society.
World Bank land tenure approach contributes to displacement and food insecurity
The World Bank’s efforts to increase security of land tenure have largely amounted to a ‘formalisation’ of land property rights, which reinforce land inequalities and the disenfranchisement of rural peoples.
The World Bank’s water privatisation agenda neglects fundamental human rights
World Bank’s water privatisation agenda directly clashes with its poverty alleviation goals, disregarding water as a basic human right.
World Bank embarks on pilot phase of Business Ready Project, disregarding civil society concerns
B-READY pilot 1 covering 51 countries is released, ignoring CSO concerns about the project’s flawed “private-sector first” agenda.
World Bank project fails to protect Tanzanian pastoralists from serious human rights abuses
New report by Oakland Institute shows World Bank failing to uphold human rights standards resulting in violent assaults and evictions of Tanzanian pastoralists.
Civil society raises concerns about Resilience and Sustainability Trust’s green conditionality as Fund conducts interim review
CSOs and experts question the suitability of ‘green’ policy conditions attached to RST loans.
World Bank makes developing countries wait on Loss and Damage Fund demands
Bank may not respond to asks until June, at the earliest, raising questions about timeline for fund’s operationalisation.
