Bretton Woods
Update 60
World Bank climate funds: “a huge leap backwards”
The recently proposed climate investment funds to be administered by the World Bank are under heavy fire for proposing a governance structure that replicates the inequities of the Bank’s board and undermines the UN climate framework.
Facilitating whose power? WB and IMF policy influence in Nigeria’s energy sector
Despite rhetoric to the contrary, the World Bank’s energy portfolio still fails to reap the double dividend of renewable energy technologies that would tackle both energy poverty and climate change. Nigerian economic policies shaped by World Bank and IMF recommendations, policy agreements and conditionality have so far lead to a dysfunctional electricity privatisation process, a…
The IMF in Argentina: the search for relevance
Since Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner assumed the presidency in December the Fund has been involved with the renegotiation of Argentinean debt with the Paris Club and a controversy over official statistics.
IFIs foot dragging on key debt issues
The IFIs are struggling to catch up to global debates on odious debts and responsible financing; have failed to take action on vulture funds; and have been dragging their feet on debt relief programmes for Haiti and Liberia.
Camisea and the World Bank: A lost opportunity to make things better
Several weeks ago the International Finance Corporation (IFC) of the World Bank approved a loan for Camisea II in Peru, the project to export liquefied natural gas. Even though concerns had been raised about this project over environmental, social and now economic issues, the IFC did not hesitate to provide a loan for the Lot…
A taxing agenda for the IMF
The irony of the IMF giving a passing grade to Liechtenstein on money laundering in the same month that Germany launches a massive investigation into tax evasion based in the Alpine country shows that the Fund has a lot of work to do if it wants to help clamp down on illicit flows.
The World Bank and health
In the last five years the global system for channelling development finance to the health sector has changed radically, causing the Bank to seriously re-examine its role in health finance. This article covers the who, what, where and how much of the World Bank’s work with in the health sector.
Training for nothing?
An evaluation of the World Bank’s training for capacity building reveals serious flaws in design and implementation that undermine country ownership; the same criticism is being levelled at the IMF over its plans to charge for technical assistance.
World Bank strategic review kicked into long grass
Since president Robert Zoellick announced his six “strategic themes” for the Bank at the annual meetings in 2007, Bank watchers have been trying to decipher what this means for a planned strategic review.
IMF governance renovations: fresh paint while foundations rot
The shareholders of the IMF have squandered the political will for governance reform of the institution by making marginal changes that will fail to shift the balance of power.
Bank both player and referee in road to Accra
On aid effectiveness the World Bank is both player and referee, prompting cries of foul play by civil society groups.
Leaky logic: dams in three countries questioned
Recent reports have raised new questions about the impacts of World Bank-funded dams in Uganda and Laos, while in Mozambique the World Bank will likely be approached to fund another controversial project likely to be spearheaded by China
Europe questions IFIs on conditionality: whose outcome?
A new report shows that IMF structural conditionality did not decline in the five years after the approval of the Fund’s conditionality guidelines. With little progress at the World Bank, many wonder whether a new approach is needed.
Calls for Bank to uphold human rights
As the UN human rights council holds its seventh session in Geneva in March, a variety of recent reports calling for greater human rights accountability of the World Bank have been published.
Forest carbon facility: “more harm than good”?
As details emerge of the World Bank’s new facility to pay countries for preventing deforestation, concerns about its operations and governance mount.
IFC challenges highlighted in the Middle East
The International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank, is rapidly increasing its investment in the Middle East, raising questions about the development value of its activities. A Norwegian study of the IFC’s Doing Business indicators questions the usefulness of the index to making real-life improvements to a country’s business environment.
Rural electrification: “financial viability” over welfare
A recent evaluation by the World Bank’s Internal Evaluation Group on the welfare impact of rural electrification finds that only seven per cent of dedicated World Bank rural electrification projects have an explicit poverty reduction objective.
World Bank and procurement: Development tool or TNC sop?
A new study on the Bank’s push for procurement reform suggests that a narrow focus on value for money may undermine the ability of governments to use procurement as a tool for development; meanwhile US and European corporate lobbyists continue to pressure the Bank to go slow on the use of developing countries’ own procurement…
Slaughtering the Amazon
A new report finds the World Bank culpable for the cattle industry’s encroachment on the Amazon.
Palacio resigns: progress on rights?
The resignation of World Bank general counsel Ana Palacio who will step down mid-April has raised hopes that the Nordic Justice and Human Rights Trust Fund may now move forward.
Rebuke for UK’s WB love affair
UK parliamentarians have reprimanded the Department for International Development for its decision to hand over a 50 per cent increase in funding for the World Bank without sufficient analysis of whether or not this is good value for money.
2008 World Bank-IMF spring meetings schedule
Tentative schedule of the World Bank-IMF spring meetings in Washington, April 12 – 13, 2008.
IMF-sponsored pension reform prompts Turkish strikes
In early March Turkish unions conducted a two hour “warning strike” to protest against IMF-supported plans for pension plan and health insurance reform.
Anyone with experience taxing sin?
The Philippine finance ministry asked for technical assistance from the both the IMF and the World Bank on the design of sin taxes.
IMF rebukes Tajiks over false information
Tajikistan has gotten itself in hot water with the IMF over poor reporting of information while the country was borrowing money from the Fund.
NGOs urge Congressional intervention on IMF gold sales
A coalition of over 70 US NGOs, including large labour unions, has written to Congress to demand that planned IMF gold sales pay for debt relief as well administrative expenses.
Special issue: Feedback wanted
Feedback wanted on this trial issue of the Update.
Fund trade advice in the crosshairs
The Independent Evaluation Office released the draft issues paper for its planned evaluation of the IMF’s trade policy advice.
New Bank financial products
In March the Bank approved a new lending facility to give middle-income countries immediate access to emergency funds in the event of a natural disaster.
The Bank, Brazil and biofuels
The World Bank has become a major financial and political supporter of Brazil’s campaign for sugar-cane based ethanol and a free market for bio-fuels.
Sri Lankan small farmers slam World Bank
Local farmers and agriculture activists in Sri Lanka have slammed World Bank intervention in the agricultural sector, saying it has caused the eradication of small-scale cultivation and resulted in high food prices, in particular rice and wheat.
Venezuela v. Exxon back to ICSID?
Venezuela has asked Exxon Mobil to go back to the World Bank’s International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, and drop lawsuits filed in other courts in London and New York.
World Bank powerless to end Chad abuses
Chadian president Idriss D