Over 60 per cent of low-income countries and more than 25 percent of emerging market economies are in or at risk of debt distress, and are in danger of being unable to fulfil their fiscal obligations.
The Indonesian Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati acknowledged the G20 faced "many challenges" and "differences in view", with "escalating geopolitical conflicts worsening the economic situation.”
This Inside the Institutions looks at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings, one of two official yearly events bringing together BWI governors, officials, civil society, academics and journalists to discuss major economic developments and global governance.
The IMF and World Bank continue to be amongst the most relevant and significant powerful norm-setters, convenors, knowledge-holders and influencers of the international development and financial landscape. This Inside the Institutions sets-out some of the most common criticisms of the World Bank and IMF under three broad lenses: democratic governance, human rights and the environment.
G24 finance ministers called for urgent global action to mitigate the effects of rising debt levels in emerging economies, and rising global food, energy and commodity prices.
This Inside the Institutions provides an overview of one of the World Bank’s most controversial types of lending, Development Policy Financing, and outlines some key critiques of the instrument.
As the inability of Bank and Fund to adapt their policies in response to the Covid-19 pandemic becomes more evident, hope turns to the UN system and a radical restructure of the global international financial architecture.
Covid-19 pandemic highlights the urgent need for ICSID and wider ISDS reforms as cases threaten to undermine state efforts to protect public health.
IMF fails to respond to loan requests from Iran and Venezula as they struggle to respond to increasing Covid-19 cases and deaths.
Notes from a meeting at the IMF/World Bank CSO Forum at the 2016 Spring meetings, evaluating how well the World Bank and IMF have done on respecting the country ownership principle ten years after its international acceptance.
Tentative schedule of the World Bank-IMF spring meetings in Washington DC, from 18 to 21 April, 2012.
Civil society organisations met UK Executive Director to the World Bank and staff from the Department for International Development to discuss agriculture, land grabs, food security, the safeguards review process, the selection of the next World Bank president, the doing business indicators, and the debt sustainability framework.
In October 2011 international coalition of civil society groups Seattle to Brussels Network held an international week of action against bilateral investment treaties.
"Why have the policy tutors performed so miserably and the pupils so brilliantly?", wondered Professor John Weeks of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in an October article for Social Europe Journal.
The IMF's Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) has released an issues paper describing how it will assess whether the IMF has strengthened its 'trusted advisor' role since 2005.
Notes of a meeting, Washington DC, 21 September 2011
