The IMF’s April 2025 Regional Economic Outlook for Sub-Saharan Africa presents a clear warning: regional growth is slowing, debt pressures are mounting, and donor assistance is declining. Yet the report outlines critical opportunities particularly in domestic revenue mobilization, structural reform, and private sector activation that can shape a more resilient …
NOT all floods in Bangladesh are "bad"; there are "good" floods as well, and only the Bangladeshis can distinguish between the 2 to make the best use of them. This is the message that they are endeavouring to convey to the World Bank (wb), which has recently come up with …
GLOBAL conflagarations of the next century might very well be over water, says a World Bank report presented at the 20th session of the International Seminar on Planetary Emergencies held recently in Erice, Italy. The report warns that overconsumption of water in the developed nations and its growing scarcity in …
The World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and a couple of other UN bodies have launched a global integrated pest management facility to reduce excessive and costly pesticide use which threatens both human health and environment (Pesticide News, No 28). The pilot projects under the new programme will focus …
THE Bisalpur dam in Rajasthan will finally see the daylight. The World Bank (WB) has decided to fund the Jaipur Water Supply Project which will receive water from the Bisalpur dam under construction in the state. The announcement came in early August. This is a part of the Rs 3,000 …
A historic victory was achieved by Nepal's environmentalists and citizens' groups, when the World Bank announced on August 4 in Washington DC, that the proposed Bank loan to Nepars Arun IH dam project, which was cleared earlier, would be scrapped. Gopal Siwakoti of the Arun Concerned Group in Nepal said, …
THE World Bank (WB) has devised a new strategy to improve the lot of the "poorest of the poor". Inspired by the success of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, which lends small amounts mostly to women - to set up smallscale businesses, it has pledged to channelise tiny loans to …
Big Daddy has finally been forced to sell himself. In what the Washington-based ngo Development Gap termed a "desperate and amateurish attempt at public relations", in May the World Bank (wb) paid to advertise itself through American newspapers. Washington's plans slashing its international aid has put the International Development Association, …
With severe malnutrition threatening 68 per cent of all its children under 5 years, Bangladesh has been provided with a World Bank (WB) credit of US $59.8 million to improve nutrition. The fund will help set up a national nutritional programme which will design and implement plans for improving nutrition …
THE World Bank's (WB) "project completion report" for the controversial Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river has cast a shadow over the project's future. India's unimpressive track record in operations and maintenance, says the report, is responsible for the uncertainty. India has borrowed US $151.5 million from the WB …
As part of the recent orgy of self-recrimination, the World Bank has in a confidential document admitted its goof-ups in Indonesia. A "project completion report" for the Bank-funded Kedung Ombo 61-metre-high dam in central Java, completed in 1989, points to the "highly defective" resettlement plans: 72 per cent of the …
• Over 60 per cent of the catchment area of the Arun river falls in Tibet; little is known about the hydrological behaviour of the river in this part. • inadequate study of the discharge pattern of the Arun river. critics say that the data collected does not go back …
ACTIVISTS around the globe stole the thunder from the World Bank"s (WB) jj4st-concluded 50th birthday, insisting, "50 Years Is Enough". In making their case, protesters were able to point to a seemingly endless list of World Bank created, catalysed or assisted catastrophes: massive relocation schemes in Indonesia that damage rainforest …
"India would need power by the time Arun III dam stal1$; producing electricity," said Nepal's Prime Minister Man Mohan Adhikary in response to a question by Down To Earth during his visit to New Delhi in April. Although the viability of the World Bank-sponsored project hinges on India's purchase of …
LOCATION On the Arun river in Sankhuwasabha district,about 200 km east of Kathmandu TOTAL POTENTIAL OF THE ARUN BASIN 1,045 mw PRE-FEASIBlLITY STUDY March 1985 FEASIBILITY STUDY June 1987 DETAILED ENGINEERING STUDY December 1992 TARGET COMMISSIONING DATE April 1, 2001 TOTAL POWER GENERATION 201 mw (Phase I), 201 mw (Phase …
On January 16, 1994, 2 human rights activists, Gopal Siwakoti and Rajesh Gautam filed a public interest petition in the Supreme Court under Article 16 of the Constitution which recognises the right to information as fundamental. Siwakoti and Gautam went to court with the complaint that they were denied access …
IT is something of a paradox: no one seems to doubt the apparent merits of Nepal's 402 megawatt (mw) Arun III hydroelectric project, yet the scheme has become fraught with controversy. Almost invariably, the first comment in reply to any reference to the venture is: "Well, Arun III is a …
THE World Bank (WR) has admitted that its assessment of the Sardar Sarovar Project did not adhere to many of its own guidelines. In an internal memo prepared by the Operations Evaluations Division, it has described its own approach to the project as "delinquent". The WB's resettlement and rehabilitation guidelines, …
THE setting up ofthe Inspection Panel in September 1993 as a permanent body which will monitor World Bank-funded projects is a significant, far-reaching development. Unfortunately, the World Bank (WB) governing board of executive directors' mode of selection of sensitive areas was highly disappointing. There have been serious objections to the …
THE Independent Inspection Panel of the World Bank ( WB ) has inspired hope among many environmental activists and organisations. They expect it to provide the much-needed scrutiny of the Bank"s activities, many of which aid and abett the wasteful exploitation of natural resources, environmental degradation and consequent human suffering. …
WE CANNOT help being sceptical when the World Bank tells us that it is henceforth going to encourage and practice participatory decisionmaking. The move to have an Inspection Panel is the latest gimmick of the World Bank's (WB), resourceful public relations system. Apart from the fact that such gestures are …
