IF-EYE Newsletter
Issue #36
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
A publication of the Bank Information Center (BIC)
Welcome to the October 28, 2008 issue of the IF-EYE – the Bank Information Center’s monthly synthesis of key developments concerning international financial institutions. This issue spotlights the upcoming global summit on international financial systems, and the return of the IMF. Please send suggestions, contributions and subscription requests to: info@bicusa.org. Thanks for reading!
In this issue:
1. SPOTLIGHT: The IMF is back in business
2. SPOTLIGHT: Urgent Action: Global sign-on statement on the proposed "Global Summit" to reform the international financial system
3. SPOTLIGHT: Bretton Woods Project: World Bank-IMF annual meetings 2008 wrap-up
4. Civil society updates
5. IFI updates
6. Announcements and Resources
1. SPOTLIGHT: The IMF is back in business
10/28/2008 Bhumika Muchhala, Bank Information Center
As the financial crisis plunges the world into a frenzy of credit-crunch panic and newspaper headlines blare "recession" and "layoffs," the International Monetary Fund (IMF) was, at first, “embarrassingly absent” from the task of financial firefighting. However, at the Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF earlier this month, the IMF’s Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn emerged from high-level meetings with a quick and ready fix—the Emergency Finance Mechanism and the Stand-by Arrangement loan.
These loans are being requested by a diverse range of countries teetering on the brink of financial meltdown, from Iceland which is reeling from dried-up liquidity in its banking sector to Pakistan, which has seen its reserves levels swoop down to only a few weeks of import payments. Indeed, within a matter of weeks, the IMF seems to be back in business, back on the negotiating table, and back on the world economic stage. This is a dramatic change from just a year ago, when world leaders and the media warned that the Fund was “in danger of ‘slipping into obscurity.’” After being repeatedly labeled as “irrelevant” and portrayed as obsolete in a new world economy defined by emerging market economies’ economic muscles, the IMF is now being heralded by media headlines that read: “The IMF is back in business” and “The Fund is back in town.”
Read more (BIC website)
2. SPOTLIGHT: Urgent Action: Global sign-on statement on the proposed "Global Summit" to reform the international financial system
10/24/2008 Multiple organizations
Sign-on to the civil society letter, BY OCTOBER 28, supporting the fundamental and far-reaching transformation of the international financial and economic system. The letter supports the major international conference convened by the UN to review the international financial and monetary architecture, its institutions and its governance.
Sign on to the statement by midnight GMT on TUESDAY OCTOBER 28th by visiting Choike's website.
Read the full global sign-on statement (BIC website)
3. SPOTLIGHT: Bretton Woods Project: World Bank-IMF annual meetings 2008 wrap-up
10/12/2008 Bretton Woods Project
Bretton Woods Project has compiled a wrap-up of all the events at the 2008 World Bank-IMF Annual Meetings. Included in the wrap-up are:
- Detailed notes from more than several seminars and civil society sessions
- Coverage of the communiques of the Development Committee and the International Monetary and Finance Committee (IMFC)
- Analysis of the Development Committee and IMFC background papers
- Links to more articles and resources related to the meetings
View the Bretton Woods Project World Bank-IMF annual meetings 2008 wrap-up (BWP website)
4. Civil society updates
Independent People’s Tribunal report charges World Bank
9/24/2008 Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group
After a year-long review, the Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in Asia released its "Findings of the Jury" report on September 11, 2008. The purpose of the Tribunal, which took place over four days in September 2007, was to provide a "just and unbiased forum for people who have faced the impact of projects and policies funded or promoted by the World Bank Group." The report leveled twenty-nine specific charges against the Bank, arguing that its projects and policies have caused "grievous and irreversible damage to those they intend to serve."
Read the full report:
Findings of the Jury, Independent People’s Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India, September 11, 2008 (Acrobat pdf, 234 KB)
Read more (BIC website)
World Bank excludes indigenous peoples from climate change discussions
9/22/2008 Multiple organizations
Indigenous leaders have petitioned the World Bank to "stop excluding them from climate change discussions" according to a press release issued by Amazon Alliance, an international network of indigenous organizations and NGOs that aim to safeguard the environment of the Amazon.
Read more (BIC website)
5. IFI updates
The IDB together with CAF and FLAR announce a major injection of resources for the Latin American region
10/17/2008 Inter-American Development Bank, Corporación Andina de Fomento, Fondo Latinoamericano de Reservas
At a press conference held on October 13, 2008, the presidents of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Corporación Andina de Fomento (CAF) and the Fondo Latinoamericano de Reservas (FLAR) met with the intention of giving signals to the region that there are significant resources available to Latin American countries beyond those that exist regularly.
Read more (BIC website)
Hackers breach World Bank servers
10/16/2008 World Bank
At least 18 computer servers at the World Bank were compromised by hackers last June and July, according to a story on FOXNews.com. The hackers were able to gain access to the entire World Bank network, including the institution's "highly-restricted treasury unit." The breach comes as World Bank President Robert Zoellick is attempting to position the Bank as a major player in ensuring global financial stability.
Read "World Bank Under Cyber Siege in 'Unprecedented Crisis'", by Richard Behar, October 10, 2008 (FOX News website)
U.S. to lose stranglehold on World Bank presidency
10/14/2008 World Bank
According to an article in The Guardian, the tradition of the United States unilaterally choosing the head of the World Bank Group, will be broken when the current term is over in 2012.
Read "US surrenders power to appoint World Bank president", by Heather Stewart and Larry Elliott, October 13, 2008 (The Guardian website)
6. Announcements and Resources
Halifax Initiative's new issue brief on the World Bank, climate change and energy
In October 2008, Halifax Initiative released a new Issue Brief on the "The World Bank, Climate Change and Energy." The brief looks at how the World Bank has increasingly staked a claim for itself as a key player on the issue – with widespread criticism from developing country governments and civil society around the world.
Halifax Initiative's "Issue Brief: World Bank, Climate Change and Energy"
Forest Peoples Programme releases guide to the IFC's Performance Standard 7 on Indigenous Peoples
A Community Guide to the International Finance Corporation's Performance Standard 7 on Indigenous Peoples (PS7) explains what to do if a company, with a loan from the IFC, is planning to develop projects near a community's customary lands. The guide is part of the Forest Peoples Programme series.
Indigenous Peoples & World Bank Projects - Guide to IFI standards, October 2008 (Acrobat pdf, FPP website)
International Rivers releases new report on dam building in Laos
"Power Surge: The Impacts of Rapid Dam Development in Laos," a new report by International Rivers, chronicles the social and environmental debt created by unprecedented dam-building boom in Laos. The report's 11 case studies detail the impacts that hydropower development is having on rural livelihoods and fragile ecosystems, and the threats posed by new large dams.
The 88-page report can be downloaded for free, or you may request a hard copy by emailing Orawan Yafa.
The report's Executive Summary is also available in English, Lao, Thai and Khmer.
BIC’s popular Tools for Activists now available in Chinese
Published in September 2008, BIC's "Tools for Activists: An Information and Advocacy Guide to the World Bank Group" is now available in Chinese.
The translation of this popular education material was initially introduced to representatives of Chinese NGOs and institutes that attended the "NGO and Green Credit Workshop" in Beijing in May 2008.
To receive hard copies of the toolkit for use in China and in Southeast Asia, contact Green Watershed and BIC-Bangkok office, respectively.
The Toolkit can be downloaded in full or by individual chapters from BIC's Tools for Activists page.