September 20, 2006 Inter Press Service News Agency
	World Bank Careless About Development Goals -- Several developing countries are not reaching sustainable development targets fast enough despite numerous international agreements, says a report, launched here amidst criticism that World Bank energy and mining projects were not doing enough to protect the environment and improve the plight of the poor.
September 17, 2006 Inter Press Service News Agency
	Transparency Begins at Home, WB-IMF Told -- Civil society organisations gathered on this island, ahead of the annual meeting of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in neighbouring Singapore, have launched a ‘global charter' demanding transparency from the finance institutions. This initiative, which argues that the public's right to information has greater weight than the WB-IMF's willingness to be transparent, marks a new direction that non governmental organisations (NGOs) are taking from their usual mission -- targeting governments that deny the right to freedom of opinion and information to their citizens.
September 16, 2006 Common Dreams
	NGOs to Sue Singapore, WB-IMF for Abuse at Airport -- Civil society representatives denied entry into Singapore to attend the annual meeting of the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) have vowed to take legal action for abuse and humiliation suffered at the hands of airport immigration authorities.
September 15, 2006 Common Dreams
	First Official Demonstration at Singapore IMF-WB Meeting -- About 30 people have became the first to hold a demonstration inside a designated area at the convention centre where the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are meeting in Singapore. The protesters from the Global Call to Action Against Poverty (GCAP) wore masks emblazoned with the words "No Voice" to highlight restrictions on non-governmental groups (NGOs) at the meetings which began on Thursday.
September 14, 2006 Common Dreams
	Charities Threaten to Boycott IMF over Ban on Singapore Protests -- The high-profile meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were in disarray yesterday after some of the world's leading charities threatened to pull out of the event in protest at heavy-handed policing by the Singapore government. Oxfam and at least 15 other pressure groups are furious that the authorities have banned 28 activists from entering the country and deported two others. The police have also forbidden any public protests.
March 16, 2006 Tompaine.com
	Latin America Unchained -- For decades the International Monetary Fund (IMF) served as one of the key pillars of the "Washington Consensus." Dominated by the White House, the Fund allowed successive administrations to control the economic policy of poorer countries in this hemisphere and beyond. Those nations wishing to buck a U.S. agenda of corporate globalization risked having their access to international loans cut off. The brutish IMF not only handled its own funds but also played gatekeeper for money from other creditors, such as the regional development banks. This power made the institution as hated throughout the global South as it was celebrated inside the Beltway.
September 24, 2005 The New York Times
	Debt Deal for Poorest Nations Moves Ahead -- The United States moved closer on Friday to a final deal with other industrialized nations on wiping out about $18 billion in debt owed by the world's poorest nations.
July 19, 2005 Council on Hemispheric Affairs
	The IMF and the Washington Consensus: -- Nevertheless, the IMF’s aggressive interpretation of its recommendations and history of repeated failure has hindered growth in Latin America and tarnished the Washington Consensus’ otherwise defensible formula for promoting prosperity in developing countries.
June 15, 2005 gowans.blogspot.com
	A Rape in the Making -- Under pressure from Washington, the Paris Club, a group of major capital exporting nations, agreed late last year to forgive 80 percent of Iraq's debt, in return for Iraq yoking itself to the IMF. ... Iraq's undeniable attraction as a source of immense oil wealth lies at the heart of Washington's debt relief plan, and equally undeniably is a large part of the reason Iraq was chosen as a target of US aggression.
June 11, 2005 Jubilee USA Network
	Jubilee USA Encouraged By Apparent G-8 Agreement for 100% Cancellation of IMF, Multilateral Debts -- As G-8 Finance Ministers concluded their meeting in London, Jubilee USA Network was encouraged today by the apparent agreement reached by the G-8 for 100% cancellation of IMF and multilateral debts for some heavily indebted countries, but insisted all impoverished nations mustbe included in the deal. Though 18 countries will receive immediate cancellation, the Network demanded that the G-8 also provide immediate cancellation to other impoverished nations without forcing them to implement harmful economic policies as part of the HIPC (Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) Initiative.
June 11, 2005 Reuters
	Rich nations agree on African debt relief -- The world's wealthiest countries agreed on Saturday to write off more than $40 billion of African debts. ... The accord covered debts to international lending agencies such as the World Bank, African Development Bank and International Monetary Fund.
June 06, 2005 Reuters
	Zambia to put debt relief into AIDS fight -- Zambia will use millions of dollars freed up by debt relief to provide AIDS drugs for 100,000 people by the end of the year, a minister said on Monday.
June 03, 2005 The New York Times
	The Price of Gold -- If you could improve the lives of hundreds of millions of the world's most destitute people with a program that might - just might - temporarily reduce the profits of the global gold industry, most people would probably think it is worth doing. Even most members of Congress. That's why it has been so disturbing to see gold producers strong-arm Congress and the White House into blocking just such a desperately needed measure.
June 02, 2005 Focus on the Corporation
	Sell the Gold, Free the Poor -- When historians look back over the last 25 years, one of the great crimes they will identify is the Third World debt crisis. Now, finally, the rich countries have agreed to cancel the debts of the poorest countries to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. But they continue to differ over how to do it.
April 25, 2005 Focus on the Global South
	The Limits of Reform: the Wolfensohn Era at the World Bank -- Arguably, the most important lesson to be learned from the Wolfensohn decade is that the World Bank is too large, too political, and too central to the structure of US-led global capitalism to be changed by a single individual, even one as charismatic and shrewd as James Wolfensohn. In the last instance, the Bank serves as an extension of US corporate and strategic interests. Wolfensohn could only modify its performance at the margins. Now even that slight room for maneuver to initiate cosmetic reform is being eliminated as Paul Wolfowitz, whose name is synonymous with unilateralism, steps in as Bank president.
April 22, 2005 New York Times
	Ecuador's New Chief Picks Cabinet; Leftist in Economic Post -- QUITO, Ecuador, April 21 - A day after President Lucio Gutiérrez was driven from power, his successor, Alfredo Palacio, named a new cabinet on Thursday, including a left-leaning economy minister likely to appeal to poor Ecuadoreans, while working to gain legitimacy with Washington and Ecuador's Latin American neighbors.
April 11, 2005 In These Times
	IMF on the Ropes in Brazil -- For the first time in six years, Brazil will not renew its accord with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The accord was up for renewal March 31. However, Finance Minister Antonio Palocci, an international respected fiscal conservative, announced on March 28 that President Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva’s wish to end Brazil’s conflict-laden relationship with the IMF would be granted.
March 16, 2005 Associated Press
	World reacts to Wolfowitz bank nomination -- Bush on Wednesday selected Wolfowitz, a key architect of the Iraq war whose hard-line foreign policy stance as deputy defense secretary has stirred criticism, to take over as chief of the World Bank. Around the world, the notion of U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz leading the World Bank met with reactions ranging from official reserve to skepticism and outright denunciation.
March 16, 2005 Essential Action
	Statement of Robert Weissman, Director, Essential Action, In Response to Nomination of Paul Wolfowitz to Head World Bank -- Unless the Bush administration's intention is to speed up efforts to shut down and replace the World Bank altogether, it is hard to imagine a worse selection for World Bank chief than Paul Wolfowitz. Wolfowitz brings no apparent development experience to the job, but does offer a record of unabashed militarism and unilateralism that represents exactly the wrong direction for the World Bank.
March 10, 2005 Institute for Policy Studies
	Top 10 Reasons Why Paul Wolfowitz Would Make a Good World Bank President -- 1. He would follow in the great tradition of World Bank president Robert McNamara, who also helped kill tens of thousands of people in a poor country most Americans couldn’t find on a map before getting the job. 2. It helps to be a good liar when you run an institution with employees who earn over $100,000 a year to pretend to help billions of people who live on less than $1 a day.
February 19, 2005 The Globe and Mail
	In Tanzania, 'death doesn't wait' for the poor to raise money -- People in Tanzania, where the average annual income is $356, must pay for health care. Consultation at a local clinic costs about $2; opening a file at a hospital costs $5. These small fees raise only a fraction of the country's annual health budget, but critics say they serve to keep a huge chunk of the population from having basic care. The Tanzanian government instituted the fees at the behest of the World Bank more than a decade ago, but faces a growing chorus of demands to cancel them.
January 11, 2005 Le Soir, Belgium
	DISASTER DONATIONS MAY WELL END UP SERVICING THIRD WORLD DEBT -- The amount of international aid so far pledged is estimated at 6 billion dollars, 4 billion of which will come from official institutions. Without wishing to discourage the wave of generosity, which relieves the donors' consciences long before it reaches the victims, it is urgent to point out that the eleven countries shell out six times that much in debt repayments each year. So the grossly over-publicised generosity, even when it is sincere, remains a very subtle mechanism for sucking the wealth of the populations of the South towards their rich creditors. If only December's tragedy could serve to highlight that other tragedy, going well beyond the eleven countries hit by the tsunami: the debt.
October 24, 2004 The New York Times
	In Africa, Free Schools Feed a Different Hunger -- In the 1990's, the World Bank, the largest financier of antipoverty programs in developing countries, encouraged the collection of textbook fees. Its experts had reasoned that poor African countries often paid teacher salaries but allotted little or nothing for books. If parents did not buy them, there often were none. But evidence began to mount that fees for books, tuition, building funds and other purposes posed an insurmountable barrier for the very poor. In 1996, Uganda's newly elected president, Yoweri Museveni, abolished fees for four children per family. His message that education was free sounded through the country like a clanging school bell. In 1997, 2.3 million additional children showed up for class, nearly doubling enrollment to 5.7 million.
October 03, 2004 BBC NEWS
	IMF failing to agree on debt plan -- The world's leading finance officials and ministers appear to have failed to reach agreement on debt relief for the poorest nations. Wrapping up a weekend of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank talks in Washington, no agreement seems to have been secured. While UK Chancellor Gordon Brown has put forward a specific 100% debt relief programme, others are more cautious.
September 24, 2004 Oneworld.us
	IMF Policies Spread AIDS, Groups Charge -- The austerity policies imposed on developing countries by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are undermining the global fight against the HIV/AIDS crisis, according to a new report by several prominent public-health and development groups. Released on the eve of next week's annual meeting here of the IMF's board of governors, the 26-page report, 'Blocking Progress' charges that the conditions which the IMF attaches to its loans and debt relief may be making it much harder for governments to finance the rapidly rising expenses of fighting the epidemic.
August 23, 2004 THE WASHINGTON TIMES
	U.N. Development Goals Fall Short -- The world's poorest countries are in severe danger of failing to meet ambitious economic and development goals set for the next decade, according to a new report from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
July 30, 2004 Washington Post
	IMF Says Its Policies Crippled Argentina -- The International Monetary Fund's handling of the crisis in Argentina three years ago almost certainly deepened a recession that threw millions of Argentines into poverty and sparked political chaos throughout the country, according to a report released yesterday by the IMF's internal audit unit.
July 20, 2004 CENTER FOR ECONOMIC AND POLICY RESEARCH
	International Financial Institutions Need Internal Workforce Reform -- The World Bank and International Monetary Fund should tie its internal staff promotion system to the success of policy recommendations for developing countries, concludes a new report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). Mark Weisbrot and Dean Baker, the authors of the report, entitled "Applying Economics to Economists: Good Governance at the International Financial Institutions", argue that the international financial institutions' (IFI) lending programs typically do not have well defined and quantified goals that allow for their success or failure to be clearly evaluated. They also argue that the economists responsible for the design of specific programs should be clearly identified (along with their supervisors) to ensure that they can be held accountable for the quality of their performance. This report comes out as the Bretton Woods institutions mark the sixtieth anniversary of their founding conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire on July 22, 1944.
June 07, 2004 Atlanta Journal Constitution
	Leaders should lighten poorest nations' load -- The G-8 must instruct the IMF and World Bank to cancel 100 percent of the debt of impoverished countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Forced by the global Jubilee movement and thousands of protesters encircling G-8 summit sites in Europe to address the issue, the G-8 took the first step toward this goal at the 1999 Cologne G-8 summit with a commitment of $100 billion in debt relief.
June 02, 2004 Agence France Presse
	G8 should ease debt for poor, make AIDS top priority: analysts -- Wealthy Group of Eight (G8) nations should cancel all debt of poor countries and make HIV-AIDS a top security priority, experts and analysts said Wednesday ahead of a summit of the industrialised powers. "We have to be clear: (HIV-AIDS) is a greater threat than terrorism. This year, three million people will die in Africa. These are preventable deaths," Salih Booker, director of Africa Action, told reporters.