World Bank updates the International Poverty Line and claims a continued decrease in numbers of poor, but long-standing questions about the methodology used and whether the instrument is fit for purpose persist.
Knowledge
Social services
Analysis
PPPs as a model for development: An analysis of the African context
Public-private partnerships are pushed in Africa, but the risks and costs must be fully understood and minimised, including the impact on the poor.
Knowledge
Background
Lurking behind plummeting oil prices: Advancing structural adjustment
Notes from a meeting at the IMF/World Bank CSO Forum at the 2015 Annual meetings, focusing on macroeconomic challenges for the MENA region.
Knowledge
News
WDR 2015: Mind over matter
Behavioural economics is the basis for the World Bank's 2015 World Development Report but is criticised for ignoring the impact of power and politics.
Rights
Analysis
The IMF’s chameleon-policies on unions are changing colours
New IMF research has shown the positive impact of trade unions have on reducing income inequality, however, the Fund's own European austerity programmes indicate that the IMF ignores its own evidence.
Conditionality
Commentary
The Arab world’s subsidy nightmare: pondering alternatives
For decades, the Arab region has embarked on a series of IMF-prescribed energy subsidy reforms, which have contributed to increased poverty levels.
Knowledge
News
Who’s poor? New estimates of PPPs led to halving of World Bank’s poverty numbers
A May World Bank-led statistical operation has used a new method to estimate purchasing power parities, allowing it to more than halve the estimated number of people living on below $1.25 per day.
Rights
News
ILO paper questions IMF research on labour market reforms
A recent ILO publication finds major methodological flaws in reserach papers that the IMF used to justify the weakening of labour regulation.
Knowledge
News
Business as usual: World Bank rejects Doing Business reforms
World Bank publishes minor changes to its Doing Business report, addressing only one of the criticisms of an independent panel review while activists continue to highlight the damage done by the rankings.
Trade
Background
The future of Doing Business
Sponsors: EURODAD, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), International Working Group on Trade-Finance Linkages Panelists: Natalia Speer…
