Bretton Woods
Update 70
Eskom loan blackens the World Bank’s name
The World Bank, Business Unity South Africa and the African National Congress got their way with a major loan for Eskom, the national power authority, despite broad based opposition from local people, the poor, community organisations, the churches, unions, and environmental and social justice NGOs locally and globally.
IMF loans: still pinching vulnerable countries where it hurts most
Recent papers by academics and civil society reveal that the IMF’s claims of reform on conditionality do not stand up to close scrutiny.
World Bank and IMF enter debate on sources of climate finance
As experts in the United Nations Advisory Group on Finance (AGF) start to scope innovative sources of climate finance, the IMF issued its own proposal, while questions loom over the governance of climate funds. Meanwhile, the Climate Investment Funds’ (CIFs) Partnership Forum exposed the limitations of the Bank’s engagement with civil society in developing the…
World Bank energy lending causes uproar
Debate about the World Bank energy portfolio and its impacts on climate change has reached the boiling point with hundreds of civil society organisations campaigning against the Bank’s $3.75 billion loan for a new coal plant in South Africa.
Rewriting the rules on exchange rates
The financial crisis has prompted renewed interest in reform of the international monetary system, with the role of the IMF squarely up for debate. As countries are starting to take sides for or against a comprehensive overhaul, regional initiatives may offer greater hope of change.
Rethinking the IMF again
The IMF’s mandate review – with a particular focus on how it can better serve large emerging markets in the areas of surveillance, crisis prevention and the international monetary system – is ignoring most developing countries and may potentially be fruitless.
Secret World Bank shake-up?
Internal reforms with potentially far reaching consequences for how the World Bank is run are underway. The proposals were developed without public consultation, and over a timeframe that allowed limited discussion with shareholder governments and stakeholders.
IDA: World Bank fundraising drive begins
As officials opened discussions on donor contributions to the sixteenth replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA, the World Bank arm for low-income countries), civil society groups urged major reforms to the Bank’s structure and approach.
IFC’s mining investments: a black hole for human rights?
A spate of human rights violations and environmental abuses by mining ventures backed by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, is raising alarm over the inadequacy of its social and environmental standards.
Education strategy review: has the Bank learned its lessons?
The World Bank launched a review of its education strategy in January with a concept note setting out key challenges and principles for a sector where its activities have come under sustained criticism.
IEG: World Bank neglects most water-deprived countries
A recent report by the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) finds the Bank’s water lending to be overlooking the most water-stressed countries.
Evaluation: World Bank’s PSIA contribution to country capacity ‘negligible’
A recent report by the World Bank’s Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) on poverty and social impact analysis (PSIA) finds implementation problems and a “negligible” impact on developing country capacity, echoing long standing civil society critiques.
Bank voting remains unbalanced
Small shifts in voting power at the World Bank are expected to be formally agreed at April’s spring meetings, leaving high-income countries holding almost 60 per cent of the vote, with further reform put off until 2015. Meanwhile the Bank is expected to receive a smaller capital increase than it sought, which could push lending…
UK complacent about World Bank failings
In its annual report, the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) highlighted serious weaknesses in the World Bank’s work on gender and crisis response, but overlooked failings on health, climate impacts and governance reform.
IMF changing its mantra?
After four decades of promoting policies of targeting very low inflation rates and unfettered capital flows, the global financial crisis has prompted new debate over IMF ideology.
Guyanese oppose REDD without consultation
Participants reviewing proposed low carbon development strategies and Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation policies of the World Bank at a workshop on Indigenous peoples’ rights, extractive industries and national development policies in Guyana, expressed dissatisfaction with the consultation process indicating that previous concerns were yet to be addressed.
ICSID takes ad hoc approach to transparency
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes, a World Bank arm for investor-state dispute arbitration, decided in March that questions of confidentiality and transparency in arbitration are to be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Nordic contributions to IMF trust fund
The Norwegian government has taken to parliament a proposal for a $450 million contribution to the IMF’s poverty reduction and growth trust PRGT. The trust fund holds resources for subsidising IMF lending facilities for low-income countries.
IMF restores votes for Zimbabwe
The IMF board announced in mid February that the voting rights of Zimbabwe would be restored after seven years of suspension for unpaid debt, meaning that Zimbabwe can now participate in Fund decision making.
Save the world in 10 easy steps!
The World Bank’s online game ‘EVOKE’ gives aspiring alchemists aged 13 and up the tools to build “creative solutions to our most urgent social problems.”
World Bank and IMF restore relations with Honduras
The Bank and Fund have decided to restore relations with Honduras, after almost eight months of suspension.
World Bank hinders Southern Sudan’s reconstruction
Government officials and development groups have criticised the failure of the World Bank and developed countries to deliver financial aid promised to Southern Sudan.
World Bank’s DRC hydro project derailed
The ongoing rehabilitation of the Inga dams in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which receives financial assistance from the World Bank, will be delayed for three years.
World Bank health insurance not delivering in Ghana
In a forthcoming paper, NGO Oxfam will criticise the national health insurance scheme in Ghana, which has received technical assistance from the World Bank, for failing to deliver equitable health care.
DFID annual report on World Bank spots weaknesses
In March, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) released its second annual report reviewing its work with the Bank and setting priorities for 2010.
World Bank country assistance strategies
The country assistance strategy (CAS) is the most important World Bank country-level document: it sets out the indicative level and type of assistance the World Bank Group will provide to a country, usually for a four-year period. The CAS should link a country’s development priorities to selected World Bank Group support. It is also intended…
US pledges to controversial World Bank agriculture fund
The US administration is seeking to allocate $1.6 billion to its global agriculture and food security initiative. Of this, $408 million has been earmarked for the global agriculture and food security programme (GAFSP), a new multi-donor trust fund, to be managed by the World Bank.
Haiti to receive Bank finance and debt relief
In late March the World Bank announced a three-year programme of financial support for Haiti totalling $479 million, which includes total cancellation of its $39 million debt to the Bank.
2010 World Bank-IMF spring meetings schedule
Tentative schedule of the World Bank-IMF spring meetings in Washington, April 24 – 25, 2010.
IMF appoints Chinese senior advisor
In February, Zhu Min, former vice president of the People’s Bank of China, was appointed as a special advisor to IMF managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Speculation that Strauss-Kahn is to leave in order to stand for the French presidency is rife.