A new report from Christian Aid, Millennium Lottery, Who Lives, Who Dies in an Age of Third World Debt, looks at how debt and structural adjustment hinders development through the lens of health in Africa.
Finance
Finance
News
Countries embark on PRSP process
Bolivia is the first country to have produced an Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP), which has qualified it for the enhanced HIPC Initiative debt relief.
Finance
News
Stiglitz supports workers
In a parting shot as he departed the Bank on February 1st, Joseph Stiglitz, in an interview with the International Herald Tribune, said the interests of poor countries had not been “adequately represented in a lot of the international fora”, even when decisions were potentially harmful to them.
Finance
News
Ecuador crisis leads to indigenous peoples’ uprising
In January, the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE), and other social movements led an uprising in protest at the worsening economic situation which resulted in the resignation of the president, Jamil Mahuad.
Rights
News
Jakarta activists call for local initiatives
NGO activists in Jakarta wrote an open letter to World Bank President James Wolfensohn in February, asking him to meet directly with the people to hear their own solutions to reverse Indonesia’s economic decline based on small-scale, local initiatives.
Finance
News
Mozambican NGO rejects Bank emergency lending
The Mozambican Debt Group (MDG) has protested against the one-year moratorium on Mozambican debt service payments granted by the World Bank in response to the devastation caused by the worst floods experienced by the country, and against the Bank providing loans to support emergency efforts.
Finance
News
Global Gamblers
A new report from War on Want, The Global Gamblers, British Banks and the Foreign Exchange Game, finds that banks profit substantially from trading foreign currency during periods of financial instability.
Finance
News
Controlling capital flows
A new report by UNCTAD, Capital Flows to Developing Countries and the Reform of the International Financial System, concludes that until ways can be found at the international level to limit financial instability then developing countries should maintain national control over capital flows.
Finance
News
IMF changes its tune on capital controls
A new report from the IMF, Country Experiences with the Use and Liberalization of Capital Controls, reviews experience with the use of capital controls in 14 countries and provides detailed studies of the experience of the use of controls in Chile, India and Malaysia.
Conditionality
News
IMF takes on poverty mandate
Important changes to the IMF’s remit in the poorest countries were announced at the IMF-WB Annual Meetings in September.