Bretton Woods
Update 65
El Banco Mundial y el FMI lanzan revisiones de transparencia
Los grupos de la sociedad civil sintiéndose muy conscientes de los problemas que tienen para ganar el acceso a la información en el Banco Mundial y el FMI, confían que las revisiones sobre la transparencia y la revelación de este año produzcan una mejora radica.
World Bank and IMF launch disclosure reviews
Civil society groups, painfully aware of information access problems at the World Bank and IMF, hope this year’s reviews of transparency and disclosure will bring radical improvement.
IFC’s role in Yemen mining
Trends in the relationship between World Bank and IFC technical assistance policies and the IFC’s investment portfolio raise interesting questions over possible conflicts of interest. Disclosure at the IFC remains opaque making specific details of projects and policies hard to come by.
IMF: Bigger but not much nicer
World leaders agreed at the G20 to treble the size of the IMF’s resources, but critics worry about strengthening the Fund without fundamental reform of its governance and conditionality.
World Bank under fire over support for private sector health care
The debate over the World Bank’s support for private sector investment in health care provision in developing countries is in the limelight again. A new report by Oxfam asserts that while the private sector can play a role in health care, evidence shows that only scaling up of private sector provision of services is likely…
Latin America: Return to the IMF or reinforce alternatives?
Today, Latin American countries are faced with the option of returning to international and regional financial institutions – IMF, World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) – or rejecting the failed recipes of the 1990s in order to build and reinforce alternatives that allow them to face the current crisis.
IFIs: Powerful bodies, little accountability
Efforts to reform the IMF and World Bank’s governance structures are coming to a head, but they may not go far enough.
World Bank still supporting carbon-intensive future
The World Bank Group will kick off the revision of its energy sector strategy, which is to take place during fiscal year 2010 with an issues paper due out this autumn. US based NGO Bank Information Center (BIC) recently published World Bank Energy Sector Lending: Encouraging the World’s Addiction to Fossil Fuels, a study on…
Ghana’s off-shore nightmare
The IFC ignored due process requirements mandated by the laws of Ghana in the case of the Jubilee oil field project and should not have considered the loan applications at the board. In so dong the IFC is encouraging the infringement of the basic rules of governance and transparency.
REDD and the rights of Indigenous Peoples
One of the most contentious issues under discussion in current climate change debates is how to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation (REDD) by ensuring protection of the world’s rainforests. Mrinalini Rai of the International Indigenous Peoples Forum on Climate Change argues that this initiative, heavily backed by the World Bank among others, raises questions…
US Congress votes against funding World Bank climate fund
In the midst of intensifying global discussions on climate change due to culminate in Copenhagen in December, the US congress voted not to fund the World Bank’s Clean Technology Fund (CTF) for 2009.
World Bank’s “environment” loan to Brazil: for what?
Once again the World Bank is lending money to Brazil, but without adequate transparency or participation of civil society.
Not much on offer for poor countries to counter the crisis
The world’s poor are being hard hit by a crisis for which they are not responsible. Low-income countries will face a financing gap of hundreds of billions of dollars this year. More than $2 trillion have been found to boost Northern economies and emerging markets. Yet richer countries have committed just over one twentieth of…
IMF emergency loans: Greater flexibility to overcome the crisis?
Despite promising rhetoric, new IMF loans show no greater flexibility in fiscal and monetary policies because of the current crisis. The Fund is still pushing tighter fiscal policy and single-digit inflation.
DFID snuggling up to the Bank?
In February the UK Department for International Development (DFID) belatedly released its latest annual report on its relationship with the World Bank. This continues a tradition which sees these reports appear at irregular intervals. As with previous annual reports there is a marked absence of the critiques heard from the Banks Independent Evaluation Group, the…
G20 ‘trillion’ dollar magic trick
To great fanfare, the G20 announced a $1.1 trillion global package, which will actually deliver less than half that amount in new or guaranteed resources. Meanwhile issues of fundamental economic reform were left off the agenda.
Clarification: Armenia corruption Allegations
We would like to appologise for any confusion due to an article in Update 62 on water privatisation. In discussing a Bank project in Yerevan, Armenia, it may not have been clear that all statements about tendering the parliamentary commission, water services, and project material were allegations from the Government Accountability Project (GAP) report.
UN criticises IFI-led housing policies
In February the UN special rapporteur’s report on housing was released, highlighting the impact of economic, financial and housing policies on the right to adequate housing and how such policies have contributed to the current crisis.
Bank’s anti-corruption stance questioned
Doubts have been raised over the efficacy of World Bank anti-corruption efforts. A recent Wall Street Journal article claims that some firms remained on the Bank’s books even whilst under investigation for corruption.
BIC: Bank and IDB projects fall short on accountability and participation
US NGO, Bank Information Centre, published a report examining how well the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank incorporate participation and accountability into project design. Overall, a majority of the reviewed projects were deemed ‘standard-mediocre’.
Rachel Whitworth joins the project
We are delighted that Rachel Whitworth has joined the Bretton Woods Project as our new policy researcher, shared with the UK Aid Network.
African leaders call for greater say in IFIs
At the close of March’s IMF-Africa conference, South Africa’s finance minister Trevor Manuel insisted that a clear message be sent to G20 leaders about the effect the financial crisis will have on African economies.
Without IFIs, There are no tax havens
Two main agreements reached by the G20 in its recent meeting held in London that should be welcomed: The reliance on a renewed leadership of the IMF and Multilateral Development Banks to support the countries that will be affected by the world recession within a new regulatory framework of international finance; and the final elimination…
2009 World Bank-IMF spring meetings schedule
Tentative schedule of the World Bank-IMF spring meetings in Washington, April 25 – 26, 2009.
FCPF still lacks safeguards and participation
In mid March the committee of participants for the Forest Carbon Partnership Fund (FCPF)met. The Bank Information Center expressed concerns that FCPF process is occurring “without any significant participation by indigenous peoples or civil society”.
Rethinking Finance
The work of several international NGOs, rethinking finance presents alternative ideas and analyses of the current financial and economic crisis and the reform of global financial architecture.
Gender, finance and the IFC
On International Women’s Day the International Finance Corporation announced its sponsorship of the first Gender Investment Index series, an initiative of its Gender Entrepreneurship Markets programme devised to mainstream gender into IFC work.