Some of the biggest players in global finance are quietly backing the world’s most dangerous coal plant, according to an investigative report released today. International investors are enabling and profiting from the proposed Rampal plant in southern Bangladesh despite persistent warnings that it will damage the world’s largest mangrove forest, intensify climate change and imperil …
World Bank projects and policies affect the lives and livelihoods of billions of people worldwide. If done right, this can be for the better, but decades of experience tell us that this is not always the case. The Bank has set itself two goals to be achieved by 2030 – to end extreme poverty and …
The House Financial Services Committee passed the World Bank Accountability Act of 2017 today, authorizing U.S. participation in IDA, the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries. The bill funds IDA at the level recently requested by the Trump administration, but conditions that funding on whether the Bank adopts certain reforms, which the bill’s sponsor, …
Submission to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank on Oman’s Duqm Port Commercial Terminal and Operational Zone Development Project In May 2017, the Bank Information Center and Business & Human Rights Resource Centre issued a joint submission to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), sharing concerns over the employment of foreign migrant workers as construction labour …
AIIB must do more to meet its environmental & social commitments (first appeared in Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s Chinese Responsible Investment Overseas Newsletter Issue 2, June 2017) Shortly after commencing operations in January 2016, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) adopted environmental and social standards that committed to investing in sustainable infrastructure projects, including a …
In response to the harm caused by the World Bank funded Uganda Transport Sector Development Project (UTSDP), including the sexual exploitation of teenage girls, BIC has conducted advocacy to encourage that the Bank takes steps to provide redress to the community and to prevent such harm from occurring in future projects. BIC has worked with …
On March 22, BIC’s Elana Berger testified before the House Financial Services Committee subcommittee on Monetary Policy and Trade. Berger’s testimony at the hearing entitled “Examining Results and Accountability at the World Bank,” focused on the impacts of the Uganda Transport Sector Development Project (TSDP) and the significant internal reforms at the Bank resulting from …
Yesterday, Secretary Mnuchin made his first trip to the Hill to defend the White House budget request for Treasury’s international programs. The World Bank was a key focus of the hearing, in which lawmakers questioned how cuts to IDA—the World Bank’s arm for the poorest countries—could have significant implications for America’s leadership position on the …
The rise of populist movements in many of the World Bank’s member countries poses new challenges for a Bank that is accountable to its Board. This session will put this year’s Spring Meetings in the context of one of the biggest changes in the power dynamics surrounding the World Bank since its founding. Join us …
After several months of negotiations, and the announcement of a record $75 billion replenishment for the World Bank’s fund for the poorest countries, the final IDA18 replenishment report was publicly released in late January, 2017. The agreement to fund the World Bank’s soft-loan window comes at an uncertain time for development aid in the …