Eye on the IFIs

Arab NGOs Warn IMF Against Sharp Cuts to Subsidies

By Jim Lobe
Civil society activists from five Arab countries are urging the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to ease pressure on their governments to reduce food and fuel subsidies until stronger social-protection schemes and other basic reforms are implemented.

Indoor Mini-Farms to Beat Climate Change

By Jewel Fraser
Industrial engineer Ancel Bhagwandeen thinks that growing your food indoors is a great way to protect crops from the stresses of climate change. So he developed a hydroponic system that “leverages the nanoclimates in houses so that the house effectively protects the produce the same way it protects us,” he says.

G20 Urges U.S. Action on IMF Reforms by April

By Carey L. Biron
The Group of 20 (G20) industrialised and emerging economies on Sunday formally expressed frustration with the ongoing inability of the United States to approve a major reform package that would see governance at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) shift more towards developing countries.

DRC Mega-Dam to Be Funded by Private Sector, Groups Charge

By Carey L. Biron

Watchdog groups here are warning that a deal has been struck that would see Chinese investors fund a massive, contentious dam on the Congo River, the first phase of a project that could eventually be the largest hydroelectric project in the world.

World Bank Arm Admits Wrongs in Honduras Loan

By Jim Lobe
In an unusual statement, the World Bank’s private-sector arm has threatened to cancel a controversial investment in a Honduran palm oil company that has been implicated in serious human rights abuses, including numerous killings, over the past five years.

Europe’s Leaders Visit Athens to Celebrate Their Failure

By Apostolis Fotiadis
The start of Greece’s six-month presidency of the EU was marked by a ceremony Wednesday in the Greek capital attended by the EU commissioners. But protests were banned and there was no in-depth talk about the raging controversy over the bloc’s handling of the Greek debt crisis and the renewed concerns about the vitality of the Eurozone.

In the Philippines, a Vortex of Climate Change and Debt

By Samuel Oakford
Since Typhoon Yolanda made landfall in the Philippines on Nov. 8, the country has sent holders of its debt close to one billion dollars, surpassing, in less than two months, the 800 million dollars the U.N. has asked of international donors to help rebuild the ravaged central region of the archipelago.

World Bank Raises 52b Dollars for Poorest Countries

By Carey L. Biron
The World Bank has raised some 52 billion dollars, a record amount, for its fund for development in the world’s poorest countries, though some are expressing concerns over the terms under which some of this money is being offered by donor governments.

WTO Urged Not to Treat Water Like Widgets

By Carey L. Biron
As government representatives gather Tuesday in Indonesia for what could be final negotiations towards a global trade agreement under the World Trade Organisation (WTO), environmentalists and social justice campaigners are urging them to specify that water resources cannot be treated as commodities.

Global Trade Winds Leave the Poor Gasping

By Amantha Perera
For years, it was the power chamber at the headquarters of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva - the Director General’s Conference Room, more popularly known as the Green Room, where a handful of delegates would gather for important discussions and meetings.

The Very Future of Third World Agriculture Is at Stake

By Devinder Sharma
The battle lines are clearly drawn. At a time when food security in the developing countries is snowballing into a major trade conflict between the developed and developing countries, what in reality is at stake is the livelihood security of an estimated 1.5 billion small farmers in the majority world.

Jobless Growth, the 21st Century Condition

By Samuel Oakford
The world’s poorest countries are rethinking economic policies that - even during periods of breakneck growth - have failed to provide quality employment capable of matching a demographic boom.

Widening Inequality Shatters Mirage of Social Mobility

By Ramy Srour
Growing income inequality will pose a major threat to social stability in countries around the globe, according to a new report by the World Economic Forum.

Déjà Vu All Over Again for Indebted Caribbean

By Samuel Oakford
On May 23, shortly after wrapping up negotiations on the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) 958- million-dollar loan - its second in three years - to keep Jamaica out of default, the fund’s mission chief in the country, Jan Kees Martijn, set out to visit Croydon, a former plantation settlement in the mountainous northwest of the island.

Key Global Financial Agencies Fall Short on Poverty Reduction

By Jim Lobe
Key multilateral institutions charged with improving regulation of the international financial system are failing to democratise their governance and adequately consider the impact of their actions on the world's poor, says a new report by anti-poverty groups.

OP-ED: Grenada’s IMF Sunday School

By Eric LeCompte
As the International Monetary Fund shares initial proposals for Grenada's debt restructuring during the Washington DC meetings this week, the Caribbean island could gain a reputation for more than nutmeg, calypso, beaches and the 2012 gold medal sprinter Kirani James.

400 Million Children Mired in Extreme Poverty

By Jim Lobe
Four hundred million children under 13 years of age are living in extreme poverty worldwide, according to a new study released by the World Bank here Thursday.

World Bank Mulls First Strategic Overhaul in Two Decades

By Carey L. Biron
World Bank President Jim Kim has formally put forward a major new proposal to refocus both the bank’s priorities and how it pursues those aims.

Risk Management Can Ease Poverty, World Bank Says

By Ramy Srour
Successful risk management can be a powerful tool for development, the World Bank said Monday in its annual World Development Report (WDR).

WTO: Stingy with the Poor, Generous with the Rich

By Martin Khor
A fight taking place in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations towards the Bali Ministerial Conference shows how the rules on agriculture allow developed countries to continue to shell out huge subsidies while penalising farmers in developing countries.

Egypt Paying a Price for ‘Cheap’ Labour

By Cam McGrath
Egyptian workers who mobilised during the 2011 uprising that toppled the regime of Hosni Mubarak have used the past two and a half years to organise into unions, press for labour reforms, and strike for better wages and working conditions.
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