Articles
World Bank: let some sunlight in ...
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For the past several months, numerous high profile and damaging stories have made their way out of World Bank Headquarters and into mainstream popular news. While this has happened before -- and no doubt will happen again -- these stories seem to be especially engaging, focused, researched and damning. From a disastrous coal-fired power plant in India to massive forced resettlement and refugee crises all across the globe, the World Bank seems to be slow marching from one disaster to the next. The question becomes, therefore, how can the bank avoid these public relations fiascos in the future? The easy answer, of course, is to not create 3.4 million new refugees worldwide. Until that is the case, the bank could at least loosen up the press restrictions and preemptively let some sunlight in. Unauthorized disclosures cannot and do not occur within an open, transparent and honest global organization.
The dark side of Development: Eviction and Displacement in World Bank Projects
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With the help of international aid, foreign land grabs in the Gambella region of Ethiopia have resulted in environmental degradation, more severe economic and social inequality, and human rights abuses, according to a new study by the Oakland Institute. We Say The Land Is Not Yours collects testimony from victims of “villagization,” a policy of forced displacement started under the military Derg dictatorship and, according to many, continued to this day under the guise of land investment. The ultimate aim, according to the report, is to resettle up to 1.5 million people.
Read more: The dark side of Development: Eviction and Displacement in World Bank Projects
Anti-Vulture Fund Legislation in Belgium: an example for Europe and the rest of the world
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On Wednesday last week (6 May) all major parties represented in the Belgian federal parliament signed a proposal that will curtail the harmful speculation by vulture funds: investment companies that buy up defaulted debts for bargain prices and then sue the country in question for full immediate repayment. Belgian Eurodad members 11.11.11 and CNCD-11.11.11 – together with the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM) – have long been advocating for more stringent legal measures against vulture funds and welcome this proposal.
Read more: Anti-Vulture Fund Legislation in Belgium: an example for Europe and the rest of the world
European Development Report 2015
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The European Commission sends a strong message in its 377 page-long report: the Sustainable Development Goals will require substantial additional finance (well beyond ODA), but any additional financing should be coupled with reformed policy frameworks at the local, national and global level to bring about the expected results.
In other words, the achievement of the SDGs needs finance, and finance needs effective policies to deliver on the expectations of the new universal and transformative post 2015 agenda. The Report’s premise is the steady increase of finance accessed by developing countries since the 2002 Monterrey Consensus. For instance, in 2011, developing countries accessed to an additional USD 0.9 trillion in private international financing, USD 3 trillion in private domestic finance and USD 4 trillion in public domestic revenues, while public international finance increased only by USD 0.1 trillion and represents less than 1.5% of the total resources available.
Social Protection in EU Development Cooperation Policy
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'Bread for the World',the German NGO, published a report on the place of social protection in policies of development cooperation:
The fact that social protection now figures prominently in all documents on EU development cooperation must
be welcomed. It is evidence of a greater awareness of the need for human development. The Commission’s Socieux
programme and the strategic partnership with the ILO are extremely important in promoting an agenda for
decent work and social justice. The concept of the social protection floor and the promotion of the 2012 ILO Recommendation
202 could signify enormous progress.
Nevertheless, we have to remain cautious. We cannot ignore that while the EU is promoting social protection in
the South, it is disassembling social protection systems in its own Member States. The EU’s austerity policies have
caused havoc in social policies in many countries
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