DEVELOPMENT: World Bank’s Critics Look Askance at Dialogue

A new forum launched by the World Bank to find common ground with its non-governmental critics appears to have highlighted rifts among the civil society organizations (CSOs).

CORRUPTION: Congress to Seek Shorter Leash for Global Lenders

The U.S. Congress is moving to demand tougher transparency and accountability measures from the five leading multilateral development banks that lend billions of dollars to developing nations.

DEVELOPMENT: MPs Demand More Budgetary Control From IMF and Bank

Hundreds of members of parliaments around the world are calling on the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to roll back dozens of conditions they impose on borrowing countries and let local legislators have the final say in domestic economic policies.

DEVELOPMENT: MPs Demand More Budgetary Control From IMF and Bank

Hundreds of members of parliaments around the world are calling on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, two institutions that lend billions of dollars every year, to roll back dozens of conditions they impose on borrowing countries and let local legislators have the final say in domestic economic policies.

DEVELOPMENT: South Demands More Say in IMF and World Bank

Developing nations have issued a statement strongly condemning the "democracy deficit" in two of the most powerful wardens of the current global economic system, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

FINANCE: IMF Inches Toward More Power Under Policy Review

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), an institution often accused of being slow to reform, is moving to institute changes in how it conducts its operations, while expanding its controversial role in the global economy.

FINANCE: Decision on Debt Relief Unlikely At IMF, World Bank Meet

The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) are not planning to announce debt relief measures during their current high-profile meetings, despite warnings from development groups that poor people are dying every day because they lack basic services and confirmation from economists that the IMF has the financial means to easily write off those debts.

FINANCE: Three-Piece Suits Populate This Secretive Conclave

Two of the world's most influential financial institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), will hold their semi-annual meetings this year amid worries about uneven global growth and long-time accusations by development groups that they cater to rich countries at the expense of the poor.

POLITICS-US: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy

Special interest groups and lobbyists in Washington spent a whopping 13 billion dollars to influence decisions made by the White House, Congress and other U.S. federal agencies over the past eight years, a watchdog group said Thursday.

FINANCE: World Bank Forecasts Slower World Growth

World economic growth will slow down this year to 3.1 percent because of rises in U.S. interest rates and the value of the euro, and a slump in demand for exports from developing nations, the World Bank said in its annual forecast Wednesday.

DEVELOPMENT-LAOS: Massive Dam Project Could Backfire

A new dam funded by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and hailed as a windfall for Laos may end up doing more harm than good to one of the world's poorest nations and its vulnerable farmers, several independent development groups say.

DEVELOPMENT: Iraq War Architect Confirmed as World Bank President

The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors unanimously confirmed the nomination Thursday of U.S. Deputy Defence Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz to be president of the World Bank.

DEVELOPMENT: Iraq War Architect Confirmed as World Bank President

The World Bank's Board of Executive Directors unanimously confirmed the nomination Thursday of U.S. Deputy Defence Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz to be president of the World Bank.

CORRUPTION: US Treasury Gives Int’l Banks "Free Ride" – Group

The U.S. government's oversight of whistleblower protection policies at some of the world's most influential financial powerhouses is inadequate to protect those who risk their careers by calling attention to corruption and irregularities, a leading watchdog group said Tuesday.

CORRUPTION: Congress Confirms Fuzzy Accounting at World Bank

A U.S. Congressional committee that pledged to probe alleged accounting irregularities and mistreatment of whistleblowers at the World Bank said Thursday that it has found evidence supporting the allegations and will proceed with a full investigation.

POLITICS: Opposition to Wolfowitz Gathers Steam

Several groups from the anti-corporate globalisation movement are joining forces to drum up opposition to the nomination of Paul Wolfowitz, a neo-conservative Pentagon official close to Pres. George W. Bush, to the highest post in the World Bank.

CORRUPTION: Is Iraq Becoming the World’s Biggest Cash Cow?

The United States has charged a former employee of the U.S. construction giant Halliburton and a Kuwaiti subcontractor with defrauding the U.S. government of millions of dollars in a contract scam in Iraq, one day after an international watchdog group warned that lax oversight was threatening the reconstruction effort there.

CORRUPTION: Is Iraq Becoming the World’s Biggest Cash Cow?

The United States has charged a former employee of the U.S. construction giant Halliburton and a Kuwaiti subcontractor with defrauding the U.S. government of millions of dollars in a contract scam in Iraq, one day after an international watchdog group warned that lax oversight was threatening the reconstruction effort there.

DEVELOPMENT: Bush Nominates Arch-Hawk to Lead World Bank

U.S. Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a chief architect of one of the most unpopular wars in U.S. history, is President George W. Bush's choice to head the World Bank, the world's largest development agency.

FINANCE: Staff Accuses World Bank of ‘Cooking the Books’

A U.S. Congressional committee said Monday that it would probe allegations of accounting irregularities at the World Bank, the world's largest development agency that lent 20 billion dollars last year.

FINANCE: Staff Accuses World Bank of "Cooking the Books"

A U.S. Congressional committee said Monday that it would probe allegations of accounting irregularities at the World Bank, the world's largest development agency that lent 20 billion dollars last year.