FAQs - World Bank

Revised July 2009

What is the World Bank?
What are the agencies of the World Bank and what do they do?
Who owns the World Bank?
How is the World Bank governed?
Who makes decisions at the World Bank?
How is the World Bank held to account, or is it?
Who is the head of the World?
How is this person selected?
How is the World Bank funded?		 How much has Canada contributed to the World Bank?
What kind of loans does the World Bank make?
What are “structural adjustment” policies?
Why do developing countries agree to these harsh economic measures?
What are the impacts of these policies?
So how is the Bank doing at “alleviating poverty”?
Who, then, benefits from World Bank projects and policies?
Why pressure the World Bank?

FAQs - Canada, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund

Revised June 2009

Who
Who represents Canada at the World Bank and IMF?
Who does Canada represent at the World Bank and IMF?
Who are Canada’s current Executive Directors?
Who are some of Canada’s past Executive Directors to the Bank and Fund?
How can you contact the offices of the Executive Directors?

What
What other positions are available to Canadians at the World Bank and IMF?
How much does Canada contribute to the World Bank and IMF?
Does Canada borrow from the Bank and Fund?

How
How much say does Canada have at the Bank and Fund?
Is Canada a big player at the World Bank and IMF?
How do we know what Canada does at the World Bank and IMF?
To what extent are Canadian officials at the World Bank and IMF accountable to government and the public?

System Chart
System chart linking Finance, CIDA, the World Bank and IMF

FAQs - ECAs and EDC

Revised June 2008

Export credit agencies Export Development Canada
What is an export credit agency?
What is an export credit?
How significant are export credits?
Who coordinates export credit agencies?
Why a campaign on ECAs?
So what have ECAs done in response?
Do other countries have export credit agencies?
What is Export Development Canada?
What makes EDC a Public Financial Institution?
What does EDC do?
What is trade financing?
What is project financing?
To whom does EDC report?
How does EDC finance itself?
So EDC isn’t subsidized by the government?
Who makes decisions on projects at EDC?
What is the Canada Account?
What are the risks of the Canada Account?
Can the public access information about EDC operations?
What is EDC’s policy on Human Rights?
Does EDC apply environmental and social standards to its clients?

FAQs - Group of Eight (G8)

Revised January 2009

FAQs on the G8
What is the G8 and who are its members?
When was it started?
What is its purpose?
Who sets the agenda for the meetings?
What issues does it deal with?
When and where does the G8 meet?
What are the outcomes of the meeting?
Is it just G8 countries who meet?		 When did Canada join the G8?
When will the G8 meet next in Canada?
When did the G8 meet previously in Canada and what was the focus of the meeting?
What issues will be the focus of the 2010 Summit in Canada?
What promises are going to "mature" in 2010?
What Canadian government departments are involved in the G8?
What are some critiques of the G8?
So wouldn’t a G-13, G14 or G-20 be better?

FAQs - Leading Group on Solidarity Levies for Development

The Halifax Initiative would like to thank John Foster, North-South Institute, for his help in developing these FAQs 

Revised November 2007

How is development normally financed?
Why is an initiative on innovative financing necessary?
What are the origins of the innovative financing mechanism process?
What is the Leading Group, and how is it organized?
Who are the members of the leading group?
Why isn't Canada a member?
Is civil society involved?
Who has chaired the leading group?
Where will the next meeting be? Who is taking over the Presidency of the group?		 What are some of the initiatives to come out of this process, and the individual presidencies?
So what have some of the “implemented” measures achieved?
What do these initiatives seek to achieve?
What else has been discussed?
How does this process relate to the Monterrey Financing for Development process? How does it feed into Monterrey/Doha?
What can I do?

FAQs - Financing for Development

The Halifax Initiative would like to thank John Foster, North-South Institute, for his help in developing these FAQs

Revised November 2007

The road from Monterrey
How is development normally financed?
What are the origins of the discussions around financing for development?
What happened at Monterrey?
What did the Monterrey conference seek to achieve?
Who participated?
What were the major outcomes? What was the Monterrey consensus?
What were some of the other key outcomes?		 The Road to Doha
What is Doha and how does it work?
Who is involved?
The UN has held hearings with business and civil society about Financing for Development. What is this all about?
What are the themes which the General Assembly FfD Dialogues hopes to address?
What do these High Level Dialogues hope to achieve?
Was Canada at Monterrey, what role did they play, and how are they involved in Doha?
How do I get involved?
Does this mean we don’t need to worry about ODA?

FAQs - Group of Twenty (G20)

Revised March 2000

Answers

What is the G20?
 The G-20 was set up to 'smooth out the bumps' of financial globalization. It was established in the wake of the financial crises that gripped the global economy and devastated much of Asia, Russia and Latin America in the late 1990's. The G-20's mandate is 'To promote discussion, and study and review policy issues among industrialized countries and emerging markets with a view to promoting international financial stability.'

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 Who sits at the G20 table?

FAQs - Tobin Tax

Revised 1999

What
What’s the difference between the Tobin tax and the currency transactions tax?
What is the Tobin tax?
What would the tax rate be?
What is the difference between speculative and legitimate trade transactions?
What would be taxed?
What is the biggest barrier to the adoption of CT taxes?

How
How do CT taxes work?
How should the revenue be distributed?		 Who
Who would be taxed?
Who collects the tax?

Why
Why are CT taxes necessary?
Why CT taxes now?

Other
Won’t speculators find ways to evade the tax?
Would CT taxes have prevented the crisis in SEAsia?
Can political barriers be overcome?

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