IF-EYE Newsletter

Issue #23

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

A publication of the Bank Information Center

Welcome to the October 2, 2007 issue of the IF-EYE – the Bank Information Center’s bi-weekly synthesis of key developments concerning international financial institutions. This issue highlights the findings from the first Independent People's Tribunal in India, the World Bank's controversial effort to reduce carbon emissions as well as the United Nation's adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People.

Please send suggestions, contributions and subscription requests to: info@bicusa.org. Thanks for reading!

In this issue:

1. IFI Updates

2. Civil Society Highlights

3. SPOTLIGHT: Independent People’s Tribunal charges World Bank with serious violations of democracy, human rights and sovereignty

4. SPOTLIGHT: Questions loom large as Bank pushes carbon finance for forest protection

5. SPOTLIGHT: United Nations Adopts Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

6. SPOTLIGHT: 2007 World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings

7. Announcements and Resources

8. New at BIC: BIC welcomes Upasana Choudhry and Benjamin Bryan

1. IFI Updates

No surprise: Strauss-Kahn takes the helm of the International Monetary Fund

9/28/2007 International Monetary Fund

Despite calls for a transparent and meritocratic process, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that French national Dominique Straus-Kahn will take over as managing director of the IMF beginning November 1, 2007.

Strauss-Kahn named to head IMF (IMF website)

World Bank pledges US$3.5 Billion for poorest countries

9/27/2007 World Bank

The World Bank announced that it will contribute US$3.5 billion through the 15th replenishment of the International Development Association (IDA). IDA is the World Bank's lending mechanism to the world’s poorest countries.

Read more about the World Bank's IDA pledge (World Bank website)

World Bank releases 2008 Doing Business Report

9/26/2007 World Bank

The Doing Business annual report ranks 178 economies on the basis of how friendly their policies are to investors. This year Egypt tops the list of reformers that are making it easier for investors to do business in the country. This ranking comes as the Egyptian government cracks down on striking textile workers demanding higher wages and benefits.

Doing Business - The World Bank Group (Doing Business website)

International Monetary Fund and World Bank to unveil joint strategy for poor countries

9/24/2007 International Monetary Fund, World Bank

At a September 24 panel event on the role of the IMF in low income countries, John Lipsky, first deputy manager at the IMF, revealed that the World Bank and the Fund are developing a joint strategy for poor countries, focusing on financial sector development, public financial management and natural resource management.

Read IMF first deputy managing director John Lipsky's speech (IMF website)

Zoellick names chief of staff

9/20/2007 World Bank

In his first high-level appointment since taking office, World Bank President, Robert Zoellick has named Caroline Anstey as his new Chief of Staff. Anstey's experience in disaster insurance schemes in the Caribbean is in line with Zoellick's controversial efforts to reinvigorate the Bank by promoting private sector products such as loans and insurance for natural disasters.

World Bank's Zoellick picks chief of staff (Reuters website)

2. Civil Society Highlights

European tribunal on the World Bank in the Hague

10/15/2007 World Bank Campaign Europe

The World Bank Campaign Europe is preparing a Public Hearing on the World Bank under auspices of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal. It will take place on the 15th of October in The Hague, Netherlands, one week before the Annual Meetings of the World Bank/IMF.

Watch the live video streaming of the hearing on October 15th (World Bank Campaign Europe website)

Jubilee Act to be heard in U.S. Congress

9/27/2007 Jubilee USA Network

Jubilee USA has won a commitment from the U.S. Congress that there will be a hearing on the Jubilee Act (HR 2634) in the House Financial Services committee later this fall. The Act aims to provide for greater responsibility in lending and expanded cancellation of debts owed to the United States and the international financial institutions by low-income countries.

Read more about the Jubilee Act (Jubilee USA website)

Blind spot: The continued failure of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to fully assess the impact of their advice on poor people

9/20/2007 Eurodad, Oxfam, Save the Children, Christian Aid, Norwegian Church Aid

A group of NGOs and networks, including among others Oxfam, Save the Children, Christian Aid, Norwegian Church Aid and Eurodad, have published a joint briefing on the failure of the international financial institutions to assess the impact of their advice on the poor.

The briefing states that both institutions are still failing to consistently ensure that there is a proper assessment of the likely consequences of different policy actions on the poorest people, despite it being a long-stated policy of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Read the joint briefing (Eurodad website)

Civil society compares Asian Development Bank safeguard policies with peer institutions

9/20/2007 Environmental Defense, International Accountability Project, Forest Peoples Programme

A recent analysis by Environmental Defense, International Accountability Project, and the Forest Peoples Programme of the Asian Development Bank’s (ADB) "safeguard" policies finds that the ADB needs to make substantial improvements to catch up with international standards and peer institutions. The ADB initiated a review of its three safeguard policies in 2005. These policies guide ADB staff and clients to "avoid, minimize or mitigate adverse environmental impacts, social costs to third parties or marginalization of vulnerable groups that may result from development projects."

Bangladesh resists International Monetary Fund pressure

9/17/2007 Equity and Justice Working Group, Bangladesh

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) delegation had to leave Bangladesh empty handed after its two-week mission to review the country’s economic situation. The country will not tighten monetary policy as per IMF diktats. Furthermore, Bangladesh made clear that it will not sign any deal with the IMF at this time. A senior Bangladesh Bank official said the government had already said no to the Policy Support Instrument agreement with the IMF and they were now negotiating with the government on the possibility of extending the Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF). Civil society organizations such as the Equity and Justice Working Group have called for transparency and reconsideration of Bangladesh's relations with the IMF.

PIL against Bangladesh signing deal with IMF (The Hindu website)

Learn more about the Equity and Justice Working Group

3. SPOTLIGHT: Independent People’s Tribunal charges World Bank with serious violations of democracy, human rights and sovereignty

9/26/2007 Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India

In its preliminary findings, the first ever Independent People’s Tribunal (IPT) on the World Bank in India found that the Bank had an undue and disturbingly negative influence in shaping India’s national policies disproportionate to its contribution, financial or otherwise. The four-day Tribunal revealed that the Bank's policies and projects in India have led to increased and needless human suffering since 1991, among hundreds of millions of India's poorest and most disadvantaged in rural and urban areas.

"It is clear to us that a significant number of Indian government policies and projects financed and influenced by the World Bank have contributed directly and/or indirectly to this increased impoverishment and suffering," wrote the twelve-member jury in a written statement of its findings.

The IPT took place in Delhi, India from 21-24 September, 2007 at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and was organised by a platform consisting of over 300 individuals representing 60 national and local groups from across the country with diverse interests. Six hundred people from communities, social movements, research institutions, non-governmental organizations, and universities attended the historic event.

Read a full text of the Tribunal's findings (Acrobat PDF, 40 KB)

4. SPOTLIGHT: Questions loom large as Bank pushes carbon finance for forest protection

9/25/2007 Nikki Reisch, Africa Program, Bank Information Center

Last week, the World Bank’s Board of Directors approved a new initiative aimed at catalyzing a market for carbon emissions credits from avoided deforestation. The Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) is designed to assist select countries in finding the most cost-effective way of reducing carbon emissions from forest degradation and deforestation and to generate incentive payments for those reductions.

Changes in land use and deforestation are the second largest source of climate change, accounting annually for one fifth of greenhouse gas emissions. There is broad consensus on the need to protect the planet’s remaining forests and widespread recognition of the need to provide countries with financial incentives to do so. However, there are divergent views about the best way to meet these needs and significant outstanding questions about the pace, design and potential impacts of proposed initiatives like the FCPF. In approving the concept of the FCPF last week, the Board gave a ‘green light’ for the Bank to proceed with development of the initiative, despite the absence of detailed information about how it will operate and lack of procedures for future Board oversight.

The FCPF is essentially designed to help prepare for a carbon trading system that recognizes emissions reductions from avoided deforestation and forest degradation post-2012 (the year when the current Kyoto Protocol expires). By some Bank projections, the market for credits from reduced forest emissions will exceed $1 billion by 2014.

Some environmental and conservation organizations, as well as groups working with forest-dependent communities, are concerned that if the FCPF proceeds without adequate consultation or prior strengthening of community land tenure rights and forest law enforcement capacity within countries, it may end up generating a new source of revenues for governments, companies and investors without guaranteeing real reductions in carbon emissions, true protection of forest resources from degradation, or equitable benefits for the poor (especially forest-dependent communities).

5. SPOTLIGHT: United Nations adopts Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

9/20/2007 United Nations

On September 13th, after over 20 years of negotiations, the United Nations General Assembly finally adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The international declaration sets a higher standard for international financial institutions (IFIs) to ensure safeguards and strengthen their policies on indigenous peoples.

The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples recognizes indigenous peoples' rights to self-determination, freedom from discrimination, and protection of liberties fundamental to human rights and freedoms.

The Declaration was approved with an overwhelming majority of 143 votes in favor, 11 abstentions, and only four negative votes cast by the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Among other issues, it recognizes free prior and informed consent (FPIC) as a prerequisite for resettlement, projects affecting indigenous peoples' territories and lands, or any other legislation which may affect them. Currently, none of the IFIs have recognized free prior and informed consent in their own policies and procedures; at best, they require only "free prior and informed consultation" and broad community support.

The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UN website)

6. SPOTLIGHT: 2007 World Bank/International Monetary Fund Annual Meetings

Read the latest information on World Bank and civil society events organized around the upcoming World Bank/IMF Annual Meetings and how to get involved, on BIC's website

Be sure to post any events you are planning around the 2007 Annual Meetings on IFIWatchnet. Please let us know if you are planning to be in Washington, DC during the Annual Meetings by adding your name to the "Who's in Town" page on IFIWatchnet.

7. Announcements and Resources

New Jubilee Video about Cancel Debt Fast

9/6/2007 - 10/18/2007 Jubilee USA

Help educate your community, school, and friends about debt cancellation and the Cancel Debt Fast campaign with this new video.

Watch the video on Youtube

Visit the Jubilee USA website for more information about the Cancel Debt Fast campaign

New blog on aid distribution

BetterAid.org

Visit the BetterAid.org blog -- the place to find out all the gossip, inside stories and interesting tid-bits on how rich country governments and multilateral institutions are spending their aid money.

Visit the BetterAid.org blog

Two new reports on gender and the international financial institutions

Gender Action, Environmental Law Institute

Gender Action's "Mapping MDBs' Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS Spending" assesses the quantity and quality of Multilateral Development Banks’ (MDBs’) spending for reproductive health and HIV/AIDS.
Gender Action's and Environmental Law Institute's "Gender Justice: A Citizen’s Guide to Gender Accountability at International Financial Institutions" is a guide that provides tools for women and men harmed by gender discrimination in IFI investments to use these mechanisms to seek redress.

Visit the Gender Action website for more information on these two reports

Eurodad annual conference on alternatives to the international finacial institutions

10/28/2007 - 10/30/2007 Eurodad

Eurodad's annual conference on "Limiting the roles of the World Bank and IMF: towards alternative institutions" will be held in Oslo, Norway from October 28-30, 2007.

The final deadline for registrations is October 8, 2007.

View Eurodad's Annual Conference Invitation (Acrobat PDF)

8. New at BIC: BIC Welcomes the New Program Associate for South Asia Upasana Choudhry and Information Services Assistant Benjamin Bryan!

Upasana Choudhry joined the BIC South Asia office in August 2007. Previously, Upasana was associated with an environment advocacy group based in India. Her engagement has centered on issues of chemicals safety in the South Asia region and also on strengthening the environmental justice movement within the country through small grants and fellowships program. During the last 13 years of her engagement with the social development sector, Upasana has been associated with various levels of organizations working on diverse social issues. Her key strengths lie in networking and alliance building and she possesses an ability to engage and work with diverse partners. She holds her Master's degree in Social Work and has also studied International Humanitarian, Human Rights and Refugee Laws. Contact Upasana at: uchoudhry@southasia.bicusa.org

Benjamin Bryan joined BIC in September 2007 as an Assistant in the Information Services Program and works to coordinate the outreach and communications activities of BIC. Prior to joining BIC, Ben interned with the Washington, DC office of the SHARE Foundation where he helped to promote economic justice, democracy and sustainability alternatives in El Salvador. Ben holds a B.A. in International Studies and Spanish Language from American University’s School of International Service. While at American University, Ben focused on environment and development issues in Latin America and studied abroad in Nicaragua and Chile. Prior to attending American University, Ben spent a year as a Rotary scholar in Nancy, France. Ben is originally from Albany, New York and speaks Spanish and French. Contact Ben at: bbryan@bicusa.org

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