Global Policy Forum

This Bloomberg News piece reports on World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz' worrying praxis of staffing high-level positions in the Bank with individuals who are "short on expertise and long on political connections" to the US Republicans. New appointees replace 14 of the Bank's 29 highest-level executives who have resigned since the former US deputy defense secretary assumed the presidency in June 2005. Among them is the Bank's 30-year veteran vice president for the Middle East who stepped down after "resisting pressure to speed up the pace of lending and adding staff in Iraq." Concerns have now resurfaced that Wolfowitz serves "to provide political cover for the White House" in Iraq.

This Washington Post piece reports on the 2006 "Annual Review of Development Effectiveness" compiled by the World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG). While Bank management boasts about the World Bank's contribution to economic growth in developing countries, the IEG study stresses that in many countries growth has failed to reduce poverty because it has been very unevenly distributed, and also very volatile. The report criticizes Bank programs for failing to adapt to local conditions and for not considering the poor's vulnerability to price and currency liberalizations.

A study released by World Bank's Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) says that the Bank has not done enough to foster sustained export-growth and to tackle poverty in poor countries. While encouraging market liberalization, the Bank failed to address poor countries' vulnerability caused by their dependence on few export products. The report also encourages the Bank to consider the particular needs of every country in its recommendations. (Reuters)

A report by the IMF Independent Evaluation Office concluded that the IMF failed to recognize the gravity of the capital account crises in Indonesia, Korea, and Brazil. (Bloomburg News)

Former World Bank vice-president George Saitoti denounced the Bretton Woods institutions for disregarding the interests of impoverished African countries. He accuses the World Bank and the IMF of formulating policies that "expose more people to poverty instead of reducing poverty." (East African Standard)

World Bank researcher Branko Milanovic directly attacks the Bank's traditional assumption that openness and trade liberalization lead to growth and, subsequently, poverty reduction. Instead, Milanovic argues that proponents of unbridled liberalization systematically ignore the malignant effects of globalization. (World Bank, Research Department)

World Bank researcher Branko Milanovic directly attacks the Bank's traditional assumption that openness and trade liberalization lead to growth and, subsequently, poverty reduction. Instead, Milanovic argues that proponents of unbridled liberalization systematically ignore the malignant effects of globalization. (World Bank, Research Department)

World Bank researcher Branko Milanovic finds that trade liberalization and openness benefit the rich, not the poor, in the world's most impoverished countries. His research challenges much of traditional World Bank policy. (World Bank, Research Department)

World Bank economist William Easterly criticizes the World Bank for unsuccessful programs in developing countries. He explains that the institution still has not figured out how to make poor economies grow. (Washington Post)

The World Bank experiences internal criticism due to censorship and a bad self-governing structure. Several leading economists have left the bank after criticizing it for giving bureaucratic conformity priority over important research findings. (Bretton Woods Project)