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POLITICS: U.N. Plan for Financial Crisis Derided as Weak
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - When the General Assembly adopted a proposed plan of action aimed at overcoming the global financial crisis, one of the political surprises was that all 192 member states gave their blessings to the wide range of proposals spelled out in an "outcome document".
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DEVELOPMENT: Not Another Missed Opportunity, Civil Society Urges
By Ayesha Gooneratne
UNITED NATIONS - A coalition of civil society organisations called the Global Social Economy Group (GSEG) is pressing for the immediate and long-term financing needs of developing countries to take centre-stage at the U.N. Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis.
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ECONOMY: "Patching Up Bretton Woods Makes No Sense"
By Haider Rizvi
UNITED NATIONS - The world community must take immediate action to overhaul the current global financial system – that's what a vast majority of political leaders and policymakers from the developing world who are attending a three-day U.N. conference on the global economic crisis are saying.
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ECONOMY: More Democracy the Cure for Broken System, U.N. Says
By Henry Parr
UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations General Assembly kicked off a three-day conference on the world financial crisis Wednesday with calls for a substantial overhaul of the decades-long model under which the world's richest countries set the terms of global fiscal and trade policy.
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ARGENTINA: Huge Loan to Flow into ‘Open Sewer’ River
By Marcela Valente*
BUENOS AIRES - Local residents and environmentalists are eyeing with cautious optimism a major loan from the World Bank to the Argentine government to clean up the Matanza-Riachuelo river that runs through Buenos Aires - the country's most polluted waterway.
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POLITICS: World Bank, IMF Heads Skip Summit on Global Crisis
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - When a major international conference on financing for development took place in the Qatari capital of Doha last November, the heads of both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) skipped the meeting.
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Q&A: Financial Crisis Unprecedented Since 1930s*
Thalif Deen interviews SUPACHAI PANITCHPAKDI, secretary-general, U.N. Conference on Trade and Development
UNITED NATIONS - Since the Great Depression of the 1930s, there have been more than 100 crises worldwide, says the secretary-general of the U.N. Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi.
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POLITICS: Women's Groups Seek Gender Equity at U.N. Summit
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - An international coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs), mostly comprised of women’s groups, is calling for a "gender equitable" response to the global financial crisis, which is to be debated at a U.N. summit of world leaders next week.
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POLITICS: Is West Undermining Summit on Financial Crisis?
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS - When a Western diplomat was asked whether his country would be represented by a head of state at next week's U.N. summit meeting on the global financial crisis, his response was tinged with sarcasm and contempt.
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U.S.: NGOs Oppose Nearly 100-Billion-Dollar Pledge to IMF
By Danielle Kurtzleben
WASHINGTON - A broad coalition of civil society groups, as well as some U.S. lawmakers, is fighting what they call a "blank cheque" from the U.S. to expand funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
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SRI LANKA: Preparing For a New Chapter of Development
By Feizal Samath
COLOMBO - As Sri Lanka prepares for a new chapter of development after ending nearly three decades of conflict, ecologists among other experts here are calling for a ‘green’ revolution against the usual foreign investment, private sector-driven type of progress.
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CARIBBEAN: Govts Seek "Clarity" from IMF, G20
By Peter Richards
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - When the G20 countries met in London earlier this year and agreed to pump more money into the coffers of major financial institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the news was largely greeted with enthusiasm by developing nations, particularly those in the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region.
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DEVELOPMENT: Lifting the 'Resource Curse'
By Marina Litvinsky
WASHINGTON - Four new countries have joined the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a global effort to set concrete standards for the transparent management of revenues from the oil, gas and mining sectors.
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WORLD-ECONOMY: IMF Using Global Crisis to "Re-Launch" Itself
By Christi van der Westhuizen
CAPE TOWN - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is attempting to reinvent itself with the global financial crisis, in the process using the opportunity to promote policies that exacerbate the recession by shrinking rather than growing economies.
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SRI LANKA: In Honour of Slain Editor, They Keep Writing
By IPS Correspondents
COLOMBO - At the end of the long editorial room of ‘The Sunday Leader’ hangs a large sketch of Lasantha Wickrematunge, the late editor of the newspaper, who was assassinated on Jan. 7. He was shot in his car, just five minutes from his office.
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LABOUR: World Bank in About-Face on Worker Rights
By Abid Aslam
WASHINGTON - The World Bank is dropping an index scored for undermining worker rights from its flagship effort to promote business-led economic growth in emerging, developing, and former Soviet countries.
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They underpin the world's financial architecture, with the power to revamp whole economies and channel billions of development dollars each year. But the so-called International Financial Institutions -- the World Bank Group, International Monetary Fund and regional investment banks -- face a new era of public scrutiny and challenges to their relevancy. How are the IFIs responding to growing demands from the South and civil society groups for greater democracy and accountability? And are they living up to their stated mission of promoting economic prosperity for all?