News|30 September 2010
IMF governance reform was thrown into disarray in August by a fight between the US and Europe over reducing European board seats. Other promised reforms, including to voting shares and leadership selection appear to be going backwards. read article...
News|30 September 2010
The World Bank’s draft framework for investment in the palm oil sector was met with dismay from civil society groups, who said that it failed to offer a credible strategy to address manifold social and environmental problems. read article...
News|30 September 2010
Energy policy at the World Bank remains controversial, with escalating lending to coal projects and a delay to the energy strategy review. Past Bank-financed energy projects in Ghana and Albania are also proving problematic. read article...
News|30 September 2010
With the World Bank and IMF under consideration as significant sources of climate finance, controversy continues around the Bank’s Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) and carbon offset projects. read article...
News|30 September 2010
Ongoing mining projects’ impacts on rights, gender and the environment suggest a new approach to the sector is needed, as the IMF and World Bank dole out contradictory advice on mining revenues. read article...
News|30 September 2010
As IMF mandate review concludes, significant changes prove elusive. Positions on capital controls remain inconsistent, while proposed reforms for central banking and surveillance lack ambition. The Multilateral Assessment Process promotes business as usual. read article...
News|30 September 2010
Natural disasters in Haiti and Pakistan have heightened calls for larger debt cancellation, rather than new IMF loans, and for a rethink of the sovereign debt system. read article...
News|30 September 2010
After the IMF's initial dismissal of a global financial transactions tax, its opposition lately seems to have softened. An August draft working paper by a Fund staffer was welcomed by campaigners for its positive view of FTTs. read article...
News|30 September 2010
While Hungary has booted out the IMF, Greece is still toeing the line of IMF austerity demands. The IMF has softened its rhetoric in some places, notably on unemployment, but critics worry that many staff are still pushing fiscal retrenchment that may damage growth prospects. read article...
News|30 September 2010
The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), which forms a part of the World Bank Group, promotes foreign direct investment (FDI) in its 175 member countries. read article...
News|30 September 2010
New evidence of worsening gender performance and persistent conditionality has led critics to ask if the Bank is fit for purpose. read article...
by Aldo Caliari
News|30 September 2010
The World Bank’s latest report on foreign investment and its new trade strategy are part of a worrisome trend that involves the Bank’s growing use of tools other than conditionality, to restrict the space for countries to pursue alternative, country-tailored development strategies. read article...
News|30 September 2010
A long-suppressed report by the World Bank remains supportive of large-scale land acquisitions in developing countries by foreign investors, despite highlighting significant risks for vulnerable populations. Civil society groups have argued that the Bank is complicit in violations of human rights associated with the so-called ‘land grabs’ read article...
by Red Constantino
Comment|30 September 2010
The World Bank is actively undermining the ability of the Philippines to directly access urgently needed climate adaptation finance without involving intermediaries. read article...
News|30 September 2010
While the IMF has focussed on its mandate review and governance reform, the institution’s policy towards low-income countries has taken a backseat. Civil society groups are worried that the IMF has returned to promoting fiscal austerity and constraining the investment needed to reach goals on poverty. read article...
News|30 September 2010
While the IMF has given the green light to new crisis lending windows, critics argue that it should focus instead on other ways of preventing crises. read article...
News|30 September 2010
In September, the Bank released a progress report on the implementation of its 2003 water resources strategy, while criticism mounts over its hydropower lending, water resource management and support for private sector provision. read article...
