Skip to main content Skip to footer

World Bank Group

Reports, briefs, and media around the activities of the World Bank. You can also learn more about the Our Land Our Business campaign by clicking here.

Publications

The World Bank's Bad Business in Kenya cover

The World Bank's Bad Business in Kenya

In 2008, the World Bank’s Doing Business program named Kenya one of its 10 Top Reformers, after the country had implemented a number of pro-business reforms. However, since then, the weakening investment climate and an “unsupportive” fiscal environment contributed to the Bank reconsidering Kenya’s inclusion in the Top Reformer group. Kenya dropped from 122nd out of 189 countries in the 2013 Doing Business ranking to 129th in the 2014 evaluation.

The World Bank's Bad Business in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) cover

The World Bank's Bad Business in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)

Although it is among the world’s resource-richest countries, the DRC ranks at the bottom of the World Bank’s Doing Business ranking (183rd out of 189 economies ranked in 2014), with the US Bureau of Business Affairs qualifying the country as “a highly challenging environment in which to do business.”1 Invasions sparking consecutive conflicts in 1996-1997 and 1998-2003, fueled by foreign interests over Congolese resources, have played a big role...

Additional Languages:
Lire en francais
The World Bank's Bad Business in Cambodia cover

The World Bank's Bad Business in Cambodia

Since Cambodia was first ranked 145th in the World Bank’s Doing Business (DB) ratings in 2008, it has only inched up slightly, moving to 137th in 2014. This deceptively low score belies the country’s deep deregulation in the hopes of attracting foreign investment. In 2014, the World Bank recognized Cambodia for being the South East Asian country most open to foreign direct investment (FDI), as well as the second largest recipient of FDI in...

Unfolding Truth: Dismantling the World Bank's Myths on Agriculture and Development report cover

Unfolding Truth: Dismantling the World Bank's Myths on Agriculture and Development

In the 1980s and 1990s, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) intervention in developing countries’ national policies, through aid conditionality and austerity programs known as Structural Adjustments Programs (SAPs), triggered a wave of global resistance against the International Financial Institutions (IFIs). in the face of growing criticism that these policies increased poverty, debt, and dependency on rich countries, saps...

Additional Languages:
Lire en francais
The World Bank's Bad Business with Seed and Fertilizer in African Agriculture report cover

The World Bank's Bad Business with Seed and Fertilizer in African Agriculture

In its 2013 Growing Africa report, the World Bank argued “wider uptake and more intensive use of improved seed, fertilizer, and other inputs would go a long way to closing the African ‘agricultural performance deficit.’” The report goes on to advocate policy and regulation reforms claiming, “policy and regulatory barriers, including import restrictions and rigid, lengthy processes for releasing new varieties are slowing the adoption of...

Pages

Blog

Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Co-Chair Bill Gates and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim at the 2016 World Bank / IMF Spring Meetings. Credit: Simone D. McCourtie / World Bank

Two Blows in a Row: The New Alliance for Food Security Loses Ground

Thursday, April 12, 2018 Flora Sonkin

Buzzwords like 'business-enabling environment,' which underlie NAFSN discourse and practice, merely support the expansion of large-scale and export-oriented agribusinesses, at the cost of local farmers and biodiversity.

Tractor in Ethiopia

Development Gone Wrong

Saturday, March 31, 2018 Anuradha Mittal

“I am not afraid of being arrested. I am afraid of being tortured.” These words from Pastor Omot Agwa , an Anuak land rights defender, are a poignant reminder of “development” gone wrong in Ethiopia. The agricultural sector, seen as the driver for development by the Ethiopian government, has been used to lure foreign investments for agribusiness ventures — large industrial plantations as those set up by Saudi Star...

Un Teatro Caupolican lleno esperó a Michelle Bachelet para la proclamación del Partido Socialista y Partido por la Democracia, como su pre candidata presidencial.

The World Bank's Fetish For Ranking: The Case Of Doing Business Rank For Chile

Wednesday, February 21, 2018 Paola Langer

On January 12, 2018, World Bank Chief Economist Paul Romer revealed that the Bank’s Doing Business Ranking may have been deliberately skewed and politically manipulated, disfavoring Chile’s ranking under its outgoing socialist president, Michelle Bachelet. Following these revelations, he resigned on January 24.

The World Bank’s Land Conference: Pro-Poor Bluff to Serve Neo-Colonialism

Monday, March 20, 2017 Alice Martin-Prével

This March 20, 2017, the World Bank’s 18th Annual Land and Poverty Conference begins, featuring a session where Bank specialists will deliver their assessment on the “quality” of land regulations globally. In particular, the Bank’s staff will comment on the implementation and findings of the Doing Business (DB) and the Enabling the Business of Agriculture (EBA), two projects that rank countries’ regulatory...

The Oakland Institute's new report Down On the Seed, the World Bank Enables Corporate Takeover of Seeds, exposes that the World Bank's Enabling the Business of Agriculture index reinforces the stranglehold of agrochemical companies and Western nations.

Banking on Seeds: World Bank Sides with Agribusinesses Against Farmers' Rights to Seeds

Tuesday, January 31, 2017 Alice Martin-Prével

Around the world, farmers’ rights to seeds are imperilled by industry-pushed reforms to curtail the freedom to save, reuse, exchange, and sell seeds. This is because, for the industrial seed market to grow, more farmers must rely on seeds bought from corporations, rather than seeds saved from previous harvests.

Pages

Press Releases and Public Statements

Driving Dispossession: Media Coverage

Send a Message to US Congress: Stop Driving Global Land Privatization

New Report Warns of an Unprecedented Wave of Land Privatization

Narmada: Statement of Solidarity

Banque africaine de développement: Appel pour mettre fin au soutien aux parcs agroindustriels en RDC

Pages


Media

World Bank acts on abuse claims in Tanzania park project

The East African

The World Bank Must Stop Funding Human Rights Abuses in Tanzania

Common Dreams

Indigenous Communities in Kenya Face Eviction by Environmental Profiteers

IDN - InDepthNews

Faced with Crushing Debts, World’s Poorest Nations to Slash Public Spending by Over 229 Billion Dollars

IPS - Inter Press Service

World Bank accused of supporting evictions, rights abuses at Tanzanian park

Mongabay

Pages