Financial Transparency Coalition

As the deadline for the Millennium Development Goals looms, policy makers worldwide have begun discussing a post-2015 development process to formalize new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While targets have been discussed, creating a comprehensive financing framework remains essential to the process.

The G8 and World Bank argue that the recent huge wave of private sector investment in agriculture increases innovation, jobs and food output. But is this correct? Forensic new research from influential campaign group, GRAIN suggests the opposite is true. GRAIN’s report, Feeding the 1 percent, produces evidence which indicates the avalanche of investment after the 2008 global food crisis is predatory and that investors have “little or no background in agriculture”.

The World Bank Group is currently undertaking an evaluation and review of its Sanctions System. That Sanctions System is an integral part of the Bank’s Anti-Corruption policy in that it provides a framework for punishing corrupt contractors, thereby creating a deterrent to corruption. A well-functioning Sanctions System is also important in helping to ensure that the development goals of Bank-financed lending projects are not undercut by fraud or corruption and that World Bank loans produce the greatest possible development impact vis-à-vis the money disbursed.

TOKYO - As the IMF and World Bank pursue implementation of tax policies in developing countries, members of Civil Society worry that these powerful institutions are putting the interests of international investors above those of the democratic governments of developing countries.