While the World Bank is seeking for more resources, Nancy Alexander's new report finds several worrying trends that have to be taken into account. She analyses the World Bank’s financial response to the global economic crisis; how the World Bank is taking less responsibility for environmental and social outcomes; and the findings of the International Development Association’s recent Mid-Term Review with regard to the institution’s track record on its gender action plan and climate change programs.
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By the end of 2009, it seemed necessary to take stock of the political and economic situation and of the different processes in which civil society has been actively involved, in order to provide input for debate and coordinate efforts for the construction of a new economic and financial model. For this purpose, a seminar-workshop was carried out on December 10 and 11 2009, within the framework of the MERCOSUR Summit of Presidents held in Montevideo, Uruguay, on December 8.
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On 11th November, Swiss NGO Aktion Finanzplatz Schweiz launched a new book with legal case studies on illegitimate debt at the 7th UNCTAD Debt Management Conference in Geneva. The book will strengthen NGO campaigns by providing them with legal knowhow. Further, it offers useful legal arguments for initiatives by countries in the South who wish to assess and cancel illegitimate debts.
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Last December 30, by a majority vote of deputies, the Lower House of the Bolivian Parliament approved a resolution to recommend the Pluri-National Legislative Assembly taking office on January 6 2010, the setting up of a special commission to audit Bolivia’s external debt. The decision is part of a process having the participation of members of parliament as well as of civil society organisations and institutions – the Jubilee Foundation among them – in association with national and international networks.
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This publication highlights how International Financial Institution debt exacerbates the feminization of poverty and undermines gender equality. The Link specifically examines typical gender impacts of IFI loan conditions on female workers such as an increase in the amount of care-work for women and the exclusion of poor women and girls from essential health services. (pdf format)
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The 2009 annual meetings of the Bretton Woods Institutions were convened in Istanbul in early October on the heels of the G-20 gathering in Pittsburgh a week earlier. From the point of view of the IMF, in particular, these events as well as the London Summit in April 2009 were historically important. Just before the eruption of the 2007/2008 global crisis the IMF was largely irrelevant. But now, having achieved a status as "lender of the last resort" for the much of the world, the IMF laims not only expertise but also a dominant role in the global economy. (pdf format)
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