World Bank

Pandemic Could Push Up To 150 Million Into ‘Extreme Poverty’ By 2021

October 9, 2020 Jessica Corbett, Commondreams. Educate! COVID-19, Poverty, Recession, World Bank

Amid findings that the combined wealth of the planet's billionaires skyrocketed to $10.2 trillion during the coronavirus pandemic, the World Bank warned Wednesday that the public health crisis could cause global extreme poverty to rise for the first time in over two decades and push tens of millions of people into that category by next year. "Between 88 million and 115 million people could fall back into extreme poverty as a result of the pandemic, with an additional increase of between 23 million and 35 million in 2021, potentially bringing the total number of new people living in extreme poverty to between 110 million and 150 million," the report says.

Agony And Death Of Neoliberalism In Latin America

November 4, 2019 Atilio Boron, Pagina 12, Translated Resumen Educate! IMF, Latin America, Neoliberalism, World Bank

During the last few weeks, neoliberalism faced a series of defeats that sped up its agony and are leading to its death amidst large and violent upheavals. After nearly half a century of pillage, outrage and crimes of all kinds against society and the environment, we witness the downfall of the ruling model promoted enthusiastically by the governments of advanced capitalist countries; institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank; and self-righteous intellectuals and establishment politicians.

The Mexican Debt Crisis And The World Bank

August 13, 2019 Eric Toussaint, Cadtm.org Educate! Debt, New Economy, US Imperialism, World Bank

Robert McNamara and president Luis Echeverria (1970-1976) were thick as thieves. The Mexican president had cracked down on the radical left. From 1973 on, Mexico’s foreign currency revenue soared thanks to the tripling of oil prices. This increase in currency revenue should have prevented Mexico from borrowing. However the volume of WB loans to Mexico rose sharply: it quadrupled from 1973 to 1981 (from USD 118 million in 1973 to 460 million in 1981). Mexico also borrowed from private banks with the World Bank’s backing.

The World Bank Needs To Understand Poverty And What It Actually Costs A Family To Live On

August 12, 2019 By Sharan Burrow, Ipsnews.net Educate! Inequality, Poverty, World Bank

The World Bank’s extreme poverty line of US$1.90 a day is in fact not based on real estimates of people’s cost of living within countries. This explains why it fails to capture the desperation experienced by so many. As soon as we focus on people’s lived experience, the picture becomes more stark. At a most intuitive level, we know that poverty is determined by a person’s inability to meet their material needs. Perhaps the most basic of these needs is food. The UN’s 2018 figures on hunger show that it is on the rise globally. It estimates that 821 million people are currently going hungry.

“Theoretical Lies” Of The World Bank. Developing Countries And The Hidden Agenda Of The “Washington Consensus”

June 29, 2019 By Eric Toussaint, Globalresearch.ca Educate! IMF, Inequality, US Imperialism, World Bank

The World Bank claims that, in order to progress, the Developing Countries [1] should rely on external borrowing and attract foreign investments. The main aim of thus running up debt is to buy basic equipment and consumer goods from the highly industrialised countries. The facts show that day after day, for decades now, the idea has been failing to bring about progress. The models which have influenced the Bank’s vision can only result in making the developing countries heavily dependent on an influx of external capital, particularly in the form of loans, which create the illusion of a certain level of self-sustained development.

Theoretical Lies Of The World Bank

June 27, 2019 By Eric Toussaint, Cadtm.org Educate! Aid, History, New Economy, Propaganda, World Bank

In 2019, the World Bank (WB) and the IMF will be 75 years old. These two international financial institutions (IFI), founded in 1944, are dominated by the USA and a few allied major powers who work to generalize policies that run counter the interests of the world’s populations. The WB and the IMF have systematically made loans to States as a means of influencing their policies. Foreign indebtedness has been and continues to be used as an instrument for subordinating the borrowers. Since their creation, the IMF and the WB have violated international pacts on human rights and have no qualms about supporting dictatorships.

Leaked Wikileaks Doc Reveals US Military Use Of IMF, World Bank As “Unconventional” Weapons

February 8, 2019 By Whitney Webb, Mintpressnews.com Educate! IMF, US Imperialism, Wikileaks, World Bank

WASHINGTON – In a leaked military manual on “unconventional warfare” recently highlighted by WikiLeaks, the U.S. Army states that major global financial institutions — such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) — are used as unconventional, financial “weapons in times of conflict up to and including large-scale general war,” as well as in leveraging “the policies and cooperation of state governments.”

US Provides Weapons And Loans To Encourage Ukraine To Keep Provoking Russians

December 27, 2018 Finian Cunningham, Strategic-culture.org Educate! IMF, Inter-Imperialist Rivalry, Russia, Ukraine, US Imperialism, weapons, World Bank

Oh what a lovely big stocking-filler for the Kiev regime this week from Washington. Just in time for Christmas too, and only weeks after President Petro Poroshenko tried to incite a war with Russia from a naval provocation in the Kerch Strait. First we had US government envoy Kurt Volker announcing this week that an additional $250 million in military weapons were being packaged in Congress for Ukraine. Then the DC-based international lending institutions, the IMF and World Bank, signed off on multi-billion-dollar loans for Poroshenko’s regime. US government-owned Radio Free Europe described the new financial loans as a “victory” for Poroshenko.

World Bank Continues To Drive People From Their Land

October 12, 2018 Staff, Intercontinentalcry.org Educate! Land, World Bank

Bali Nusa Dua, October 11, 2018–New analysis by Urgewald, the German human rights NGO, finds that the World Bank is still resettling people in many of its development projects. Altogether, Urgewald screened 1,920 projects approved by the World Bank in its last 4 fiscal years (FY). From 37.2% to 40.1% of the projects were connected to the World Bank resettlement policy: 37.2% in the FY 2015, 39.7% in 2016, 37.7% in 2017 and 40.1% in 2018. Typical projects include road construction, mining or agricultural projects. This week, the Bank is holding its annual meetings in Indonesia. The study results put further pressure on its board and its president Jim Yong Kim to ensure the protection of people affected by the Bank’s projects.

World Bank – IMF Guilty Of Promoting Land Grabs, Increasing Inequality

October 9, 2018 Staff, Viacampesina.org Resist! IMF, Inequality, Land, Land grabs, World Bank

07 OCTOBER, BALI: At a meeting of La Via Campesina facilitated by Serikat Petani Indonesia (SPI) in Bali, peasant organizations from Asia, Africa, Americas, and Europe have unanimously held World Bank and IMF responsible for facilitating large-scale land grab, deforestation and ocean grabbing around the world, which has led to inequality, poverty, and global hunger. Peasants pointed to several decades of neo-liberal push from the World Bank and IMF for privatization and de-regulation in developing countries, as among the major factors that have led to increased cost of living for peasant communities. Over the last 30-40 years, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and more recently the WTO has forced countries to decrease investment in food production and to reduce support for peasant and small farmers.

Time To End Business Rankings Of The World Bank

January 28, 2018 Staff, oaklandinstitute.org Educate! Corruption, World Bank

OAKLAND, CA—The revelations that led to this week’s resignation of World Bank Chief Economist Paul Romer point to flawed methodology and political manipulation in the World Bank’s Doing Business report. Romer admitted that the Doing Business rankings may have been manipulated to make Chile’s economic environment look worse under the sitting socialist president Michelle Bachelet. These revelations add to a long list of concerns that have been raised by civil society in recent years. The Our Land Our Business campaign was launched in 2014 to demand the end of the Bank’s Doing Business rankings. Over 280 organizations, including NGOs, unions, farmers, and consumer groups from over 80 countries have joined this call so far.

Morales Declares ‘Total Independence’ From World Bank And IMF

July 28, 2017 Staff, www.telesurtv.net Create! Bolivia, Evo Morales, IMF, Imperialism, World Bank

By Staff of Tele Sur - Bolivia’s popular uprising known as the The Cochabamba Water War in 2000 against United States-based Bechtel Corporation over water privatization and the associated World Bank policies shed light on some of the debt issues facing the region. "The Bank and the IMF have been requiring these countries (in the Global South) to accept “structural adjustment,” which includes opening markets to foreign firms and privatizing state enterprises, including utilities," the New Yorker reported. At the time, the World Bank had stated, "Poor governments are often too plagued by local corruption and too ill equipped" and "no subsidies should be given to ameliorate the increase in water tariffs in Cochabamba." The New Yorker, reported, "Most of the poorest neighborhoods were not hooked up to the network, so state subsidies to the water utility went mainly to industries and middle-class neighborhoods; the poor paid far more for water of dubious purity from trucks and handcarts. In the World Bank's view, it was a city that was crying out for water privatization."

Honduran Farmers Sue World Bank Group For Human Rights Violations

March 10, 2017 Valentina Stackl, www.earthrights.org Resist! Honduras, Human Rights, Palm Oil, World Bank

By Valentina Stackl for Earth Rights - EarthRights International (ERI) filed a federal lawsuit today on behalf of Honduran farmers charging two World Bank Group members with aiding and abetting gross violations of human rights. The suit arises out of the substantial financial support two World Bank entities, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the IFC Asset Management Corporation (IFC-AMC), invested in Honduran palm-oil companies owned by the late Miguel Facussé. His companies – which exist today as Dinant – have been at the center of a decades-long and bloody land-grabbing campaign in the Bajo Aguán region of Honduras.

Reject World Bank’s Enabling Business Of Agriculture Index

February 24, 2017 Staff, www.oaklandinstitute.org Petitions and Online Actions Food and Agriculture, World Bank

By Staff of Oakland Institute - The Enabling the Business of Agriculture index is used to promote pro-corporate agricultural reforms around the world. In the seed sector, it rewards countries that implement intellectual property rights (IPRs) to allow companies to profit from the use of their seeds by farmers. The EBA also benchmarks how easy it is for the private sector to produce and register seeds, to access genetic resources in national seed banks, and to achieve predominant representation in the committees deciding to introduce new seed varieties in countries. While the Bank claims to encourage “smart and balanced policies,” the Enabling the Business of Agriculture index largely ignores farmer-managed seed systems, which provide 80 to 90% of farmers’ seed supply in developing countries and are key to preserving agro-biodiversity and fostering resilience against climate and economic shocks.

World Bank’s Scheme to Hijack Farmers’ Rights To Seeds

January 22, 2017 Alice Martin-Prevel, www.oaklandinstitute.org Educate! Farmers, Food and Agriculture, Seeds, World Bank

By Alice Martin-Prevel of the Oakland Institute. Oakland, CA—Ahead of World Bank’s release of the 2017 “Enabling the Business of Agriculture” (EBA) report this month, 157 organizations and academics from around the world denounce the Bank’s scheme to hijack farmers’ right to seeds, attack on food sovereignty and the environment. In a letter to the World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and EBA’s five Western donors, the group demands the immediate end of the project, originally requested by the G8 to support its industry-co-opted New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition. “The EBA dictates so-called ‘good practices’ to regulate agriculture and scores countries on how well they implement its prescriptions,” said Frederic Mousseau, Policy Director at the Oakland Institute. “But the EBA has become the latest tool, to push pro-corporate agricultural policies, notably in the seed sector—where it promotes industrial seeds, that benefit a handful of agrochemical companies,” he continued.

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