Not just dirty, but deadly: Can the World Bank clean up its fossil fuel problem?
Commentary: The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation has laid out a new proposed strategy to address concerns regarding the climate impacts of its $50 billion financial intermediary portfolio. It’s a step in the right direction. But given the urgency of the climate crisis, the world’s leading multilateral development institution should be doing more to hasten […]
Free at Last: Charges Against Indigenous Land Rights Defender & Former World Bank Inspection Panel Translator Dropped
Today, charges against Pastor Omot Agwa, an indigenous land rights defender from the Gambella region of Ethiopia, were finally dropped by an Ethiopian court. In March 2015, Pastor Omot was arrested in Addis Ababa while attempting to travel to Kenya to attend a food security conference. For six months, he was detained without charge, denied access to […]
World Bank fuels land grabs in Africa through shadowy financial sector investments
The World Bank Group has indirectly financed some of Africa’s most notorious land grabs, according to a new report by Inclusive Development International and other watchdogs. The World Bank’s private-sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), is enabling and profiting from these projects by outsourcing its development funds to the financial sector. The report, Unjust […]
World Bank accused of funding Asia ‘coal power boom’ – News from Al Jazeera
Rights group says Bank indirectly financed coal projects despite pledges to cut support over environmental concerns. READ FULL ARTICLE ▶
The World Bank’s Existential Crisis, by David Pred and Natalie Bugalski
The World Bank is having an existential crisis. For decades, the bank was the premier development finance institution, doling out loans to developing countries without rival. The World Bank was also a pioneer – though not always willingly – in creating standards to protect people who could be harmed by its investments. In 1980, it […]
New IDI/SOMO report finds a third of Lagos evictees still homeless a year after World Bank Inspection Panel pilot declared success
(Asheville) – In a report released today, Inclusive Development International (IDI) and the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) called upon the World Bank to reassess a new approach to handling complaints that its accountability mechanism began piloting in 2014. In early 2014, the World Bank Inspection Panel added a new tool to its […]
U.S. Senators call on Treasury to prevent dilutions to World Bank safeguard policies
(Washington, DC) – Members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee have released a letter sent to U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew calling on the Treasury to be prevent the proposed dilution of the World Bank’s environmental and social safeguard policies. The World Bank is in the final stages of drafting a new set of safeguards […]
US Congress opposes World Bank plan to weaken environmental and social protections, seeks transparency about “beneficial owners” of shell companies
(Washington, DC) – After withering global criticism of the World Bank’s proposal to weaken longstanding environmental and social protections, or safeguards, the US Congress has weighed in forcefully. The 2016 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which was adopted on Friday, instructs the US Treasury department to oppose any World Bank policy that provides less protection than the […]
International organizations launch petition in support of jailed Ethiopian activists as court date approaches
(Reading, UK) – Five international organizations—Anywaa Survival Organisation (ASO), GRAIN, Inclusive Development International, Bread for All, and Oakland Institute—have launched a petition asking supporters to denounce the Ethiopian government and its financial backers for the arrest of three Ethiopian food, land, and indigenous rights activists. The three activists, who face terrorism charges for attempting to […]
Ethiopia: World Bank Translator, Activists Face Trial – Activists Heading for Food Workshop Charged with Terrorism
(Nairobi) – Ethiopian authorities should immediately drop all charges and release a former World Bank translator and two other local activists charged under Ethiopia’s repressive anti-terrorism law after trying to attend a workshop on food security in Nairobi, six international development and human rights groups said today. On September 7, 2015, the authorities charged Pastor […]