| Untying the knots - How the World Bank is failing to deliver real change on conditionality |
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In 2005 the World Bank launched a review of its conditionality policy. This was in response to growing international criticism, from developed and developing countries alike, that the World Bank was still attaching too many intrusive and, at times, harmful economic policy conditions to its development finance to poor countries. Two years on from this important step, the World Bank is keen to represent the problem of conditionality as one that has been dealt with, and that is no longer a major problem in lending. In order to independently assess whether or not this is the case, this report, by the European Network on Debt and Development (Eurodad), assesses the effectiveness of the World Bank’s Good Practice Principles (GPPs) in reforming World Bank conditionality. The report finds that the GPPs have, as hoped, had a positive impact in reducing the overall number of conditions that the World Bank attaches to its development finance in poor countries. However, unfortunately there has been very limited progress in curbing the Bank’s practice of attaching sensitive economic policy conditions like privatisation and liberalisation conditions to its lending. The Bank may be slimming down the number of conditions it uses in developing countries, but it is still making heavy use of economic policy conditionality, especially in sensitive areas such as privatisation and liberalisation. In short, this report highlights serious concerns with the Bank’s implementation of the Good Practice Principles. Eurodad, along with NGOs across Europe, believe that the World Bank should end its use of economic policy conditionality, which too often promotes sensitive and externally induced policy choices. Instead, grants and loans should be accompanied by a set of responsible financing standardswhich are mutually agreed by the Bank and recipient countries. Read The Full Report Here: Untying the knots - How the World Bank is failing to deliver real change on conditionality Related information from STWR: Latest articles on IMF & World Bank Latest news on IMF & World Bank Latest videos on the IMF, World Bank and WTO Featured article on the IMF, World Bank and WTO Eldis World Bank and IMF Resource Guide – A vast and informative portal of information and resources What Is the International Monetary Fund - Detailed information on IMF website The World Bank – Official information about the Bank on their own website. Global Policy Forum - Resources on the WB, IMF and WTO The Global Exchange – Resources on the WB and IMF Group of 24 research papers - Issues relating to monetary and development finance issues. Economic Justice News Online - 5o Years is Enough Network’s archive of their informative publication analysing the WB and IMF The Whirled Bank Group – Satirical, yet informative look at the World Bank.
Confronting the Contradictions - Action Aid on the IMF's impact on education - April 07 Organisations: IFI WatchNet – A network monitoring the International Financial Institutions (IFIs)
50 Years is Enough – A network dedicated to the transformation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
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12th November 07, Report - Eurodad
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