Knowledge Centre : Economy : International Financial Institutions : World Bank : Page 4
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- Poverty Drops Below 1 Billion, says World Bank
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Global poverty rates continued to fall in the first four years of the 21st century according to new estimates published in the World Development Indicators 2007. The proportion of people living on less than $1 a day fell to 18.4 percent in 2004, leaving an estimated 985 million people living in extreme poverty. By comparison, the total number of extreme poor was 1.25 billion in 1990. Two-dollar-a-day poverty rates are falling too, but an estimated 2.6 billion people, almost half the population of the developing world, were still living below that level in 2004. (World Bank, April 2007)
(Added: Tue May 08 2007 Hits: 58)
- Public Sector Reform: What Works and Why?
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'About one-sixth of World Bank projects in recent years have supported public sector reform, because the quality of the public sector- accountability, effectiveness and efficiency in service delivery, transparency and so forth - is thought by many to contribute to development.' This Independent Evaluation Group report explores World Bank support for such reforms in an effort to determine what is working and what is not working.
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTPUBSECREF/Resources/psr_eval.pdf
(Added: Mon Jun 16 2008 Hits: 32)
- Reforming the World Bank: Will the new gender strategy make a difference? A study with China case examples.
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This Study assesses the effectiveness and potential effectiveness of the Bank's Gender Strategy and recommends how to strengthen the Strategy. It describes how gender advocates inside the Bank have been trying to engender Bank investments and other initiatives over the last 25 years but their success has been limited. In September 2001, the World Bank Board of Executive Directors endorsed the Gender Strategy that this Study analyzes. The Study examines the Gender Strategy's strengths, weaknesses and implementation track record. This Study also analyzes the updated Bank Gender Operational Policy (OP) and an accompanying Bank Procedure (BP)to facilitate policy implementation that the Bank Board endorsed in 2003.Elaine Zuckerman, President Gender Action with Wu Qing, President, China Women's Health Network and inputs by Aida Orgocka and Hilary Sims Feldstein. Heinrich Böll Foundation 2003.
(Added: Mon Mar 15 2004 Modified: Tue Sep 12 2006 Hits: 217)
- Research, knowledge and the art of "paradigm maintenance"
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This essay describes six mechanisms by which the World Bank's development economics vice-presidency (DEC) performs a "paradigm-maintenance" role, privileging individuals whose work "resonates" with the neo-liberal free-market ideology. At this moment of identity crisis within the Bank, this is an opportune moment to question "paradigm maintenance" and to rethink fundamentally research - knowledge production and dissemination - at the World Bank. Governments and private foundations that support World Bank research and publicity would do far better to support independent research institutions that are stimulating a more diverse development debate. (Robin Broad, School of International Service at American University, 20 November 2006)
http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art.shtml?x=546206
(Added: Wed Jan 17 2007 Hits: 132)
- Rich Countries do it Again
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Christian World Service (New Zealand) Media Release, 26/04/04. New Zealand aid agencies are angry that the just completed spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank once again offered no hope for the world's poorest peoples. "The rich countries have done it again," said Christian World Service Director, Jonathan Fletcher. "They totally dominate the board of the IMF and the World Bank and control all their monetary resources. They have the capacity to cut the levels of debt that are strangling the economies of many developing countries and to end the economic policies that put theory before people. With their immense financial reserves they could literally save the lives of millions of people. But they don't." In releasing the Global Monitoring Report 2004, the IMF warned that "most developing countries will fail to meet most of the Millennium Development Goals that serve as targets for the global effort to reduce poverty and improve services for the poor by 2015."
http://www.cws.org.nz/News/media-release.asp#WB%20IMF
(Added: Tue Apr 27 2004 Modified: Tue Jun 27 2006 Hits: 247)
- Spring Meetings 2007: Life beyond the "Wolfogate" crisis
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Even though it may seem that this year the Spring Meetings were overtaken by the "Wolfowitz affair", there was actually more than this going on in Washington during that week. With a strong focus of the official Development Committee agenda on the Africa Action Plan, there was a good deal of discussion both in the official and non-official circles around the IDA 15 replenishment and the "almost-all-embracing" topic of Aid Architecture. Also up for discussion were clean energy and climate change, fragile states, gender equality and the theme of the day - governance and anticorruption (inside and outside the Bank and the Fund).
http://www.eurodad.org/whatsnew/articles.aspx?id=1026
(Added: Tue May 15 2007 Hits: 34)
- Statement by Neil Watkins, National Coordinator of Jubilee USA Network, on the Nomination of Paul Wolfowitz to be President of the World Bank
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(Common Dreams) WASHINGTON -- March 16 -- "We are deeply concerned that the controversial nomination of US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to be President of the World Bank sends the wrong message to the world. Given Wolfowitz's record and public statements, we fear that his nomination signals a move towards an even stronger push for harmful economic policies and large-infrastructure projects (which often come at tremendous cost to the natural environment) at the World Bank.
http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0316-17.htm
(Added: Thu Mar 17 2005 Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005 Hits: 76)
- States of Unrest II: Resistance to IMF and World Bank Policies in Poor Countries (PDF)
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New report reveals widespread and sustained resistance to IMF and World Bank policies by millions in world's poorest countries. 2003, WDM. Protest and civil unrest in developing countries directed against the policies of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank intensified in 2001 according to a report released today by London-based development campaigners, the World Development Movement. (PDF - 92KB)
http://www.wdm.org.uk/campaigns/cambriefs/debt/States%20of%20Unrest%20III_04.03.pdf
(Added: Thu May 16 2002 Modified: Wed Jan 10 2007 Hits: 180)
- Stiglitz warns of violence if Wolfowitz goes to World Bank
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By Robert Peston 03/20/05 "The Telegraph" - Joseph Stiglitz, the former chief economist of the World Bank and one of the world's most influential economic thinkers, has launched a savage attack on US plans to appoint Paul Wolfowitz as the World Bank's new president. In an exclusive interview, the American Nobel laureate said: "The World Bank will once again become a hate figure. This could bring street protests and violence across the developing world." He described President Bush's determination to appoint his deputy defence secretary to the important post as "either an act of provocation or an act so insensitive as to look like provocation". Wolfowitz is widely regarded as the creator of the policy that led to the US war in Iraq.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0320-01.htm
(Added: Tue Mar 22 2005 Modified: Tue Sep 19 2006 Hits: 100)
- Taken for granted? US Proposals to Reform the World Bank's IDA Examined
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By Vander Caceres Salazar, Bretton Woods Project, March 2002. This report reviews the main debates for and against increasing the grant element of international development assistance (IDA). Those supporting the US proposal to increase the grant element of IDA to 50% agree that grants are a more appropriate way of providing assistance for long-term needs. Grants are advocated as a means to stop debt build up or enhance debt forgiveness. However, many are suspicious of the World Bank as the appropriate institution to deliver grants. Many European governments and NGOs oppose the proposal. Their main concern is that a large grants scheme would deplete IDA's resources over time. NGOs have expressed doubts about the implications of and motives behind the US proposal.
http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/topic/reform/r27granted.htm
(Added: Thu Sep 05 2002 Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005 Hits: 137)
- Tarnished crusade: how Wolfowitz fell foul of his own high standards
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This article in the Financial Times details the background to recent corruption scandals surrounding current World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/1680d0fc-e95c-11db-a162-000b5df10621.html
(Added: Tue Apr 17 2007 Hits: 117)
- The Absence of Democracy at the World Bank
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By Kumi Naidoo, CIVICUS Secretary General and Chief Executive Officer, 29 March, 2005. "For an organisation that claims to promote good governance, the current appointment process for the World Bank President is one that lacks the very basic notions of democratic practice. Understandably there has been a strong negative response both to the process by which the World Bank President is appointed as well as with regard to the appointee himself, Paul Wolfowitz. As a global governance body, which makes decisions and implements activities that affect the lives of citizens around the world, the World Bank should have an open process that competent citizens around the world should be eligible to apply. Instead, the US President has a virtual right to appoint the President of the World Bank and European countries have a similar right to appoint the head of the International Monetary Fund. This is grossly unfair, unjust, and inappropriate and undermines any claim the World Bank could make about democracy, good governance or anti-corruption."
http://www.civicus.org/new/content/deskofthesecretarygeneral10.htm
(Added: Tue Apr 05 2005 Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005 Hits: 76)
- The continued failure of the World Bank and the IMF to fully assess the impact of their advice on the poor
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It seems impossible that the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) would give advice to developing countries without fully considering how it might affect the lives of poor people. Yet, despite it being a long-stated policy of both institutions to do so, and some recent progress on the part of the IMF, they are still failing to consistently ensure that there is a proper assessment of the likely consequences of different policy actions on the poorest people (Eurodad, September 2007).
(Added: Fri Oct 05 2007 Hits: 174)
- The Disinvestment Campaign
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Emerging from the Global World Bank Boycott initiative, the World Bank Disinvestment Campaign is a solidarity movement between communities in the Global South, who are often negatively affected by World Bank project financing and adjustment policies, and communities in the Global North, where most of the financing for the World Bank come from. The Disinvestment Campaign seeks to inform the public about the impact of World Bank policy in developing countries, while persuading socially responsible, public and private institutions to reconsider investing in the World Bank until the Bank agrees to the following demands... 1. Stop conditional lending practices based on the neoliberal agenda of imposing Structural Adjustment Policies, or what are now referred to as Poverty Reduction Strategies 2. Refrain from financing environmentally and socially disruptive projects 3. Cancel debt for impoverished nations
(Added: Thu Nov 03 2005 Hits: 86)
- The influence of the United States on the World Bank
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This article looks at the history of the World Bank, finding the institution firmly under the control of the US government which negotiates, with the governments of other major capitalist powers, the policies to be followed within the World Bank, and under its leadership. It has frequently failed to make the effort to reach a consensus with its principal partners (since the end of the 1950s, these are Japan, Germany, Great Britain and France) and it imposes its views directly on the Bank. (Éric Toussaint, CADTM, 2 November 2006)
http://www.cadtm.org/article.php3?id_article=2194
(Added: Wed Nov 29 2006 Hits: 58)
- The Potential Impact of HIV/AIDS Interventions on the HIV/AIDS Epidemic ion Africa: A Simulation Exercise for the World Bank
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In 1999 the World Bank developed its Multi-Country AIDS Program (MAP) to reduce the impact and future path of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Since that time the landscape surrounding the epidemic has changed. Given this new environment, the World Bank has decided to update its approach regarding the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and write a new strategy plan, Agenda for Action 2007-2011. This is a background paper on that agenda intended to provide some of the important issues and data pertaining to this new strategy (World Bank, Lori Bollinger and John Stover, 3 March 2007)
(Added: Wed Aug 29 2007 Hits: 43)
- The Real Scandal at the World Bank
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In this column English journalist Johann Hari argues that the real scandal at the World Bank is not Paul Wolfowitz's treatment of potential conflict of interest with his partner, but rather the World Bank's ongoing push to privatise basic services in developing countries. Hari argues that the World Bank's policies in this area needlessly harm the poor.
http://www.johannhari.com/archive/article.php?id=1103
(Added: Mon Apr 30 2007 Hits: 92)
- The relative importance of global agricultural subsidies and market access
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The claim by global trade modelers that the potential contribution to global economic welfare of removing agricultural subsidies is less than one-tenth of that from removing agricultural tariffs puzzles many observers. To help explain that result, the authors first compare the OECD and model-based estimates of the extent of the producer distortions (leaving aside consumer distortions), and show that 75 percent of total support is provided by market access barriers when account is taken of all forms of support to farmers and to agricultural processors globally, and only 19 percent to domestic farm subsidies. Then the authors provide a back-of-the-envelope (BOTE) calculation of the welfare cost of those distortions. Assuming unitary supply and demand elasticities, that BOTE analysis suggests 86 percent of the welfare cost is due to tariffs and only 6 percent to domestic farm subsidies. (Kym Anderson, Will Martin, Ernesto Valenzuela, World Bank, 2006)
(Added: Thu Sep 07 2006 Hits: 51)
- The Roles of the US Government and World Bank in The Drive to Privatize Basic Services in Developing Countries (pdf)
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Access to affordable services, including health care, education, water and electricity, is essential to human dignity, fulfillment and productivity. It is a right for all, not a privilege for those who can pay. The rising cost of services is increasingly forcing families to choose. When services are unavailable or unaffordable, the greatest burden often falls upon women and the poor. The World Bank and the U.S. Government often place undue pressure on governments to privatize, overlooking the many negative impacts of privatization and ultimately jeopardizing access to basic services. (Bank Information Center, July 2006)
(Added: Wed Aug 02 2006 Hits: 192)
- The UK's role in the WB and IMF
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This page outlines the structure of the UK government's interaction with the World Bank and the IMF.
http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art.shtml?x=537382
(Added: Fri May 30 2008 Hits: 20)
- The view from the summit - Gleneagles G8 one year on
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One year has passed since the G8 summit in Gleneagles in July 2005, where 36 million people in over 70 countries united under the Global Call to Action against Poverty. As the Russian G8 approaches, this paper explores progress (or the lack thereof) since the G8 in Gleneagles in the areas of debt, aid, conflict, trade, and climate change. (Oxfam, June 2006)
(Added: Wed Jun 28 2006 Modified: Tue Aug 15 2006 Hits: 184)
- The World Bank and the respect of the human rights
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The questions of "human rights" has never been a priority concern for the World Bank. Among the conditionalities fixed by the Bank, one right supercedes all others: the individual right to private propoerty, which in practice works to the advantage of big property holders, whether they be wealthy individuals or national and transnational corporations. As this article explains, in the conditionalities supported by the World Bank, there is no reference to the collective rights of peoples and individuals. (Eric Toussaint, CADTM, 4 May 2006)
http://www.cadtm.org/article.php3?id_article=1871
(Added: Tue May 23 2006 Hits: 121)
- The World Bank Electronic Newsletters
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Choose from a wide variety of newsletters on a number of topics.
http://www.worldbank.org/subscriptions/
(Added: Thu Jan 24 2002 Modified: Thu Sep 22 2005 Hits: 226)
- The World Bank on security and stability: The listening bank?
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(id21) Latest World Bank thinking on the link between property rights and poverty reduction risks undermining small local businesses in developing countries in favour of large multinationals. id21 Guest Editor Geoffrey Payne asks why the Bank is seemingly so insistent on ignoring the mounting evidence against titling programmes.
http://www.id21.org/viewpoints/PayneAug04.html
(Added: Wed May 18 2005 Modified: Wed Jun 15 2005 Hits: 124)
- The World Bank weeds out corruption: Will it touch the roots?
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A series of loan suspensions and internal investigations has everyone at the World Bank talking about corruption. However, this author argues that despite high-profile moves by president Paul Wolfowitz, the root causes of corruption - underpaid civil servants, an acceptance of bribery by big business, and dirty money - remain largely unaddressed. (Bretton Woods Project, 8 April 2006)
http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/article.shtml?cmd[126]=x-126-531789
(Added: Tue Apr 18 2006 Hits: 85)
