After The ECONOMIST was inundated with responses to its misguided article (“Right cause, wrong battle”, April 12th), the magazine has now published a letter from Gender and SOGI (Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity) activists from around the world online, in addition to several letters to the editor in its print version. BIC, the Council for Global …
Photo: Gerald Simmons CC BY 2.0 Model Proposal: Climate Change Assessment (CCA) Safeguard Policy Submission to the World Bank Safeguard Policy Review Unlike many institutions, the Bank has not yet formally integrated climate issues into its operational policies. Most notably, the current Safeguard Policy framework does not adequately address the challenges a changing climate presents …
As the World Bank proceeds with its two year review of the Program for Results (P4R) lending instrument, significant concerns remain among civil society about how P4R is working and how it constitutes a serious dilution of World Bank safeguards, effectively exempting billions of dollars of lending each year from social and environmental safeguards and …
The Bank Information Center (BIC) organized a series of advocacy meetings in Europe from March 10-18 around key priorities in the World Bank’s safeguards review, coordinating visits by a small delegation of civil society representatives that included Yoni Rivas from Honduras, Gonzalo Roza from Argentina, and Samuel Nnah from Cameroon. The civil society delegation attended …
As citizens of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continue to fight for the gains they have accomplished through their uprisings, it remains clear that people in the region have found their voices and are demanding that they participate in the decisions that affect their lives. In response, and in order to remain …
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 7, 2014 Civil society organizations (CSOs) from Egypt, Yemen, and Tunisia have submitted a document to their respective World Bank country offices with …
Photo by Frank Sullyvan Cardoza The World Bank’s Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) held the fourth in a series of five regional workshops on “Social Inclusion in the Preparation of National REDD+ Strategies” on January 20th – 24th in Antigua, Guatemala. The workshop was attended by government, indigenous, and civil society representatives engaged in REDD+ …
The World Bank’s Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP) is the subject of this case study prepared by BIC in partnership with Indian researcher, Simpreet Singh. The study looks into the impacts of MUTP on children in the surrounding communities that were displaced by the project. Singh’s research was also the subject of two articles recently …
The recently passed omnibus spending package clearly supports the broad poverty alleviation goals of the international financial institutions (IFIs)—fully funding most of them despite making difficult cuts elsewhere in the budget—but makes clear that their work must be subjected to effective safeguards against harms to people and the environment. This message should be heard loud …
Chixoy Struggle for Reparations. Photo by International Rivers (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). The Chixoy Hydroelectric Dam, a project financed by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in the 1970s and ‘80s in Guatemala, led to the forcible displacement and deaths of thousands of people across the region. Despite a 2010 agreement to provide …