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By Asad Ismi

Business as usual in more ways than one: NGOs say World Bank looks set to miss an historic moment to show that it can learn from its mistakes

Ottawa -  As World Bank staff return to work for the second day under the chilling new terrorist alert in the U.S., all efforts are being made to ensure that their work carries forward as it normally would. But NGOs are concerned that the World Bank will today decide to carry on with “business as usual” in its oil, gas and mining operations even though a World Bank commissioned report called for significant changes to how the Bank invests in mining and oil projects.

World Bank Sanctions Acres International Limited

World Bank News Release No: 2005/33/S

WASHINGTON, Jul. 23, 2004 – The World Bank has sanctioned Acres International Limited (Acres), a Canadian company, as a result of corrupt activities related to its Bank financed contract associated with the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP). Acres was declared ineligible to receive any new Bank financed contracts for a period of three years. This action is part of the Bank’s broad anticorruption efforts initiated by President James Wolfensohn in 1996. More information on the World Bank’s overall anticorruption policies and activities can be found at: http://www.worldbank.org/anticorruption.

Questioning the value of the World Bank: Can it change?

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A Multistakeholder meeting on "Risk, Responsibility and Human Rights: Assessing the Human Rights Impacts of Trade and Project Finance" was organized by the NGO Working Group on EDC in May 2004. A Discussion paper was prepared for the meeting looking at how ECAs and other International Finance Institutions take (or don't take) human rights into account. It made a number of suggestions as to how to mainstream human rights into the project cycle, including a proposal for a human rights impact assessment, and commensurate mechanisms within IFIs.

The Final Report provides the minutes from the meeting, including the presentations made by various speakers, discussion sessions, and a summary of the two day event.

Un aperçu général des présentations faites par divers conférenciers et du contenu des séances de discussion est disponible en français, de même qu’un résumé des conclusions du colloque.

2004 marks the 60th Anniversary of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

For too many years now, the policies and practices of these two institutions have increased inequality, raised unemployment rates, undermined healthcare and education and contributed to environmental degradation in over 100 developing countries.

Amandla! Awethu! Africans Fight Corporate Greed

The Role of the World Bank in Developing Country Water Privatization

Just as there is a global consensus on what constitutes a sound energy sector, so too is there a consensus on the central features of a sound water supply and sanitation sector. This consensus draws on the same principles of separating the roles of providers (increasingly private) and regulation and policy formulation and assessment (a public role), and of competition amongst providers.