Brazilian NGOs challenge proposed World Bank Group support for soya farming in the Amazon region.
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Pakistani hunger strikers seek reparations for damaging project
In March Pakistani activists observed a hunger strike in front of the World Bank offices in Islamabad. The strikers pointed out that Bank-backed projects have caused serious damage to their livelihoods and the coastal ecology and called for the loan to be suspended.
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World Bank pushes Malawi agriculture privatisation
World Bank manoeuvres to ensure parliamentary approval of a controversial agriculture privatisation policy demonstrates the continued influence of the Bank and the problems with Poverty and Social Impact Analysis.
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IFC decision pending on controversial Haiti free trade zone
The Board of the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank’s private-sector arm, is in the final stages of approval for a loan for development of the first of a series of proposed free trade zones along the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
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Bank pushed policies likely to cause famine - book
A former Bank consultant has charged the Bank with pushing policies which would have led to the starvation of a third of a million people in Sierra Leone.
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Bank timid steps on land reform
The World Bank’s Land Policy department is preparing a Policy Research Report on land reform, which NGOs criticise for too heavily favouring a market-assisted approach.
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Turkey to test Fund independence
A power struggle is emerging over Turkey’s compliance with a host of proposed economic reforms included in a $16 billion IMF loan package.
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Process for agriculture assessment clarified
At a meeting in Dublin in early November the World Bank discussed the process for its new global assessment of agricultural science and technology.
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Bank announces biotech food review
The World Bank’s announcement of a review of genetically-modified crops in Johannesburg met with mixed response - from pledges not to participate to a cautious welcome.
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IFI role in Southern Africa famine condemned
A new study from Oxfam questions why, after years of World Bank and IMF-designed agricultural sector reforms, Malawi, Zambia, and Mozambique face chronic food insecurity.