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

Walking on the West Side: the World Bank and the IMF in the Ukraine Conflict

International financing has played a significant—although not always reported—role in the current conflict in Ukraine. In late 2013, conflict between pro-European Union (EU) and pro-Russian Ukrainians escalated to violent levels, leading to the departure of President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 and prompting the greatest East-West confrontation since the Cold War.

Additional Languages:
Читайте пресс-релиз на русском языке

World Bank's Bad Business in Mali

In 2013, Mali was classified among the African countries that made the most effort to improve their business climate since 2005 by the World Bank. Undeterred by the 2012-2013 political crisis, the country retained its top ranking out of the eight West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) nations in the Doing Business 2013 report. In 2014, Mali lost this leadership, coming at the 155th place, just behind Burkina Faso. The country, however...

Additional Languages:
Lire en français

World Bank's Bad Business in Sri Lanka

Despite unreconciled tensions following the three-decade-long civil war, militarization of the state, human rights violations, and more than 200,000 civilians in displacement camps, the World Bank generously increased Sri Lanka’s ranking in the Doing Business assessment in recent years. During and after the war, the Sri Lankan military seized large tracts of land through forced evictions and by occupying land abandoned by civilians fleeing...

World Bank's Bad Business in Sierra Leone

Since 2004, the World Bank has provided continuous “investment climate advisory services” to Sierra Leone. Business reforms and Bank-piloted programs such as Sierra Leone Business Forum and the Sierra Leone Investment and Export Promotion Agency led to the World Bank classifying Sierra Leone among “the top 15 economies that improved their business regulatory environment the most” since 2005 and rank the country third in the regional “Protection...

World Bank's Bad Business in Senegal

Senegal has made numerous reforms in an effort to garner a higher ranking in the Doing Business evaluation. The latest round of reforms, likely to be praised by the World Bank, favor land grabbing in Senegal, a country where large-scale land deals have become increasingly frequent in the recent years. Since the late 1980s, the World Bank has influenced the Senegalese public policy at the expense of households’ livelihoods, and in recent years...

Additional Languages:
Lire en français

Pages

Blog

World Bank Doing Business 2017 Report Cover

Neoliberalism for All: The World Bank’s Doing Business 2017

Thursday, November 3, 2016 Alice Martin-Prével, Frederic Mousseau

“Equal Opportunity for All” subtitles the annual Doing Business report released last month by the World Bank. The choice is rather cynical for an instrument that has become a key driver of the neoliberal reforms promoted by the Bank around the world.

Protestors in Delhi ask the World Bank to end Doing Business rankings, 2014. © Our Land Our Business / The Rules

Undemocratic and Unsustainable, the World Bank’s Vision for Agricultural Development Harms the Poorest

Monday, October 3, 2016 Alice Martin-Prével

As the World Bank’s Annual Meetings get underway in Washington, DC, a crucial theme is noticeably missing from its seminar series: agriculture. Does this imply that the Bank has become less involved in agricultural financing? The answer is no. The World Bank is by far the main donor of agriculture, forestry, and fishing sectors in the developing countries, surpassing the United States and other G7 nations. If agriculture is not on the agenda,...

With a Little Help from Bill Gates, the World Bank Creates a New Aid Conditionality

Wednesday, April 20, 2016 Alice Martin-Prével

An alluring cast of speakers including the First Lady Michelle Obama, Queen Rania of Jordan, John Kerry, and Ban Ki-moon, among others, spoke at last week’s World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington DC. Bill Gates was the guest star of the Bank’s final live-cast panel discussion, “A New Vision for Financing Development with Bill Gates.”

Failing to Address Land Rights Violations Caused by Its Own Programs, the World Bank Launches Its 17th Conference on Land and Poverty

Monday, March 14, 2016 Alice Martin-Prével

The 17th World Bank “Conference on Land and Poverty,” bringing together governments, academics, corporations, and NGOs, gets underway on March 14, 2016, in Washington DC. Last March, members of the Our Land Our Business campaign denounced the Conference as a sham. The Bank holds an annual conference on land and poverty whereas its policies such as the business indicators facilitate land grabs by forcing developing countries to adopt...

Pages

Press Releases and Public Statements

Banque Mondiale: Appel pour mettre fin au soutien aux parcs agroindustriels en RDC

African Development Bank: Call to End Support to Agro-industrial Parks in the DRC

World Bank: Call to End Support to Agro-industrial Parks in the DRC

An Open Letter to the World Bank on its 20th Land and Poverty Conference

World Bank's New Scheme to Privatize Land in the Developing World Exposed

Pages


Media

Rights watchdog accuses the World Bank of complicity in rights abuses around Tanzanian national park

The Washington Post

World Bank investigating alleged crimes at $150 million Ruaha tourism project

The Citizen

Benki ya Dunia yachunguza madai ya mauaji Ruaha

Mwananchi

Investigation launched into killings and evictions on World Bank tourism project

The Guardian

Rights watchdog accuses the World Bank of complicity in rights abuses around Tanzanian national park

AP News

Pages