World Bank and IMF

This article examines why the World Bank adopted neo-liberal economic policies. It argues that neo-liberal discourse favoured the interests of key Northern actors, and, more surprisingly, that it also allowed many Southern state actors to maintain or extend their political power. This is because World Bank discourse offers little or no political analysis of the […]

NGO advocacy is sometimes portrayed in a heroic light, but efforts to influence World Bank-supported economic policies confront considerable ambiguity. Influence is difficult to demonstrate, but advocacy should be more rigorously assessed in the interest of transparency and effectiveness. Two (partial) solutions to this ambiguity are to focus on the process of NGO campaigns themselves; […]

Based on primary research, this paper describes the negative human, occupational, and environmental impacts of the Kiraz Dere dam project in Turkey, concluding that financial compensation for people who are displaced by such projects is unlikely in itself to lead to the resettlement recommended by agencies such as the World Bank. This article is hosted […]

Beliefs about the origin and nature of the universe and the place of humanity within it have seldom been considered of relevance for economic theory and practice. Yet, for the large majority of the world’s people, a bedrock of strong ethical principles, based on their religious faith, is an essential prerequisite for long-term economic progress. […]

Recent initiatives from the OECD, the World Bank, and others on the subject of corruption have received widespread attention. However, the author argues that the incidence of corruption is closely connected with contracting-out, concessions, and privatisation, where multinationals based in OECD countries stand to gain profitable business. The encouragement of privatisation by the World Bank, […]

This paper looks at the nature and extent of privatisation around the world, including an analysis of the bodies or interests which promote this ‘panacea’ policy. It identifies a number of responses which public sector trade unions have made to such policies, especially where these have been ideologically driven. It offers some examples of ways […]

Thailand is experiencing the unfamiliar phenomenon of aid and multilateral agencies such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank lending money for internal development programmes. In the economic boom years, aid was neither sought nor required since structural development was funded from the growth which South-East Asian countries had begun to take for granted. […]