World Bank Archives - Oxfam Policy & Practice

Briefing paper

Climate Finance Unchecked: How much does the World Bank know about the climate actions it claims?

17/10/2024

2 documents

33 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

Oxfam finds that for World Bank projects, many things can change during implementation. On average, actual expenditures on the Bank’s projects differ from budgeted amounts by 26–43% above or below the claimed climate finance. Across the entire climate finance portfolio, between 2017 and 2023, this difference amounts to US$24.28–US$41.32 billion. No information is available about […]

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Briefing note

Civic Space: The missing element in the World Bank’s Country Engagement Approach

22/09/2022

1 documents

33 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

The World Bank has publicly committed to mainstreaming engagement with project stakeholders and civil society to achieve more inclusive development results. Yet typically Bank projects forge ahead to achieve these objectives without comprehensively understanding the dynamics of a country’s ‘civic space’, the actual environment in which communities will be engaging. This paper makes the case […]

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Research report

The Value-Added Tax (VAT) Improvement Program: Raising the operational efficacy of the VAT administration in Bangladesh

24/05/2022

3 documents

37 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

Bangladesh has a weak and inequitable tax system. Over the past 15 years, the government of Bangladesh (GoB) has relied on the regressive value-added tax (VAT) for more than a third of all revenues, with little progress towards strengthening direct taxation of high net-worth individuals and large corporations. From 2015–2021, the World Bank’s VAT Improvement […]

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Research report

The World Bank in Asia: An assessment of COVID-19-related investments through a care lens. Care-responsive investments and development finance

06/12/2021

1 documents

143 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

International financial institutions (IFIs) have been playing a vital role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and will play an equally important role in the recovery and ‘build back anew’ agenda. This is particularly true of the World Bank Group (WBG), given its high volumes of committed investments across sectors, especially in low-income and […]

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Briefing note

Increasing Investments in Care in the IDA20 Replenishment

19/07/2021

1 documents

15 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

IDA20 offers an important opportunity to tackle the rising gender inequality tied to the unequal distribution of unpaid care work between women, girls, and men. IDA is a crucial source of concessional finance that lower-income countries depend on and is one of the biggest providers of core support for human development and public services. Against […]

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Briefing paper

From Catastrophe to Catalyst: Can the World Bank make COVID-19 a turning point for building universal and fair public healthcare systems?

04/12/2020

2 documents

44 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

COVID-19 has exposed the widespread failure to invest in strong and universal public health systems, putting millions of lives at risk and dramatically widening health inequalities. Oxfam analysed the World Bank’s emergency health funding to 71 countries in response to the pandemic. While its response has been rapid and significant, Oxfam finds that the World […]

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Discussion paper

Financing for Development in Vietnam: After International Development Association (IDA) graduation

25/10/2019

1 documents

104 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

As Vietnam graduates from IDA, the World Bank’s concessional finance window, there will be a major change in the types of development finance the country can access. Oxfam is concerned about what this changing financial landscape might mean for Vietnam’s fight against poverty, inequality, and gender inequality. This discussion paper explores these challenges by assessing […]

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Briefing paper

False Promises: How delivering education through public-private partnerships risks fueling inequality instead of achieving quality education for all

09/04/2019

2 documents

52 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

A growing body of evidence shows that education public-private partnerships (PPPs) which support private schooling are too often failing the most vulnerable children and risk deepening inequality. Despite this, the World Bank has been increasingly promoting education PPPs in poor countries through its lending and advice. Oxfam’s research shows that over a fifth of World […]

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Research report

Equity and Quality in an Education Public-Private Partnership: A study of the World Bank-supported PPP in Punjab, Pakistan

02/08/2018

2 documents

66 pages long

Languages: English

Keywords

Overview

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) in education are increasing in profile as countries grapple with serious challenges of educational access and quality—and as donors such as the World Bank turn to this approach as they advise countries on potential solutions to these barriers. Evidence is still limited on the impacts of this policy approach, however, and the […]

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Issue briefing

The Suffering of Others: The human cost of the International Finance Corporation’s lending through financial intermediaries

02/04/2015

3 documents

32 pages long

Languages: English, French, Spanish

Keywords

Overview

Increasingly, development money is being channelled through third parties such as banks or private equity funds. The world’s leading proponent of this financing model, the International Finance Corporation, spent $36bn this way in just the four years leading up to June 2013. But what does this ‘hands-off’ form of development financing mean for people? Are […]

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