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 …
AS PART of a plan to improve the effectiveness of its lending, the World Bank has raised by 12 per cent the budget for its supervision activities for the current year. To manage projects better, the Bank intends to classify them according to country instead of project by project. The …
WITH THE World Bank sanctioning a $400 million loan to the National Thermal Power Corp (NTPC), the Singrauli Super Thermal Power Station (SSTPS) has received a fresh lease on life -- but only just. USA, Germany and Belgium abstained from voting at the bank's June 29 meeting, citing environmental reasons. …
AS ONE of the most ambitious blueprints for energy and industrial development takes shape in Singrauli, the inhabitants of the region are sinking deeper into misery for they know a new project always means another displacement for them. In 1960, when the Rihand dam was built on the Son river, …
Why have some World Bank members opposed the NTPC loan on environmental grounds? Our plants meet almost every Indian emission standard, which was a bank conditionality. If we can be trusted with projects worth $9 billion, we can be trusted to look after the environment, too. The Environment Defense Fund …
THERE is more to health policy than just policy for the health sector. But the World Development Report 1993 clearly shows the mandarins -- read health experts -- of the World Bank have trivialised the issue because holism is a philosophy they still have to learn. Surely, for a hungry …
THE INTERNATIONAL Flood Action Campaign Committee says the Flood Action Plan (FAP) for Bangladesh, coordinated by the World Bank, ignores environmental aspects and will uproot thousands of people. The Brussels-based coalition of European parliamentarians, nongovernmental organisations and academics, demands environmental impact studies be done before project work begins. This could …
What are your reactions to the government finally agreeing to your demand for talks on SSP? It's a big step forward for NBA to have brought the government to the negotiating table after two abortive attempts. We are fully confident these discussions will culminate in a review of the project. …
THE GLOBAL Environment Facility (GEF) meeting in Beijing recently marked the beginning of the first year after Rio. And it set the tone for the green world order of tomorrow -- a world in which Southern governments are conciliatory but persistent with their demand for more green funds; in which …
THERE are few words in the English language as evocative as population. Most tongues would wag it as something uncontrollable. It also evokes the notion of pressure, of human flotsam spilling over national boundaries. Among development experts, it evokes the concept of irresponsible procreation, and insufficient funding for birth control …
AFTER struggling for eight long years against the massive Narmada dam, the people of the valley are still caught between the devil and the deep blue sea -- in this case, the threat of submergence on one hand, and a repressive government machinery on the other. The doughty anti-Narmada crusader, …
US TREASURY secretary Lloyd Benen said his country favoured World Bank funding of programmes to help people affected by war, civil strife and economic mismanagement, and demanded specific targets be set for the purpose. The Bank president, Lewis Preston, said poverty eradication "must be at the centre of our overall …
LABELLING the government's forest policy, in force since 1988, as monopolistic and inefficient, the World Bank (WB) insists the best solution now would be to encourage private industrial plantations on forest lands. WB has issued its latest review of the country's forest sector, describing it as an "overview...for Indian policy …
WORLD Bank documents reveal the following stages in its forestry policy evaluation: 1950-1978:Concentration on industrial plantations and logging operations. 1978-1990: -- Thrust on social forestry (developing fuelwood plantations) and watershed management. Forestry included in such sectors as rural development, agriculture, irrigation and energy. 1991: revision -- Focus on protection of …
RICH INDIVIDUALS usually tend to be arrogant. So do rich institutions, such as the World Bank, which is prepared to accept, albeit after much pushing and prodding, that it may have been wrong in hindsight. But it is definitely not prepared to accept, at any given moment, that it is …
THE END of the East-West conflict and growing Western interest in environment is, at the root, interestingly, of the changes taking place in the UN. The stimulus for change comes from the organisation's major contributors, mainly the US, who had used the world body in the past to score successes …
Even as Union finance minister Manmohan Singh proclaimed the success of liberalisation and globalisation of the country's economy before World Bank officials in April this year, the Clinton administration targeted India for discriminatory sanctions under the Special 301 provisions of the US Trade Act. This is the third time since …
THOUGH the implementation of a structural adjustment programme has yet to be announced by either Indonesia or the World Bank, recent events indicate such a step has already been taken. The 1993-94 Indonesian budget increases total income-tax revenue by 36 per cent and also raises the cost of transport, electricity …
A HINT that Washington may soften its opposition to measures to curb greenhouse gas emissions was given at the recent session of the Framework Convention on Climate Change in New York. In an implicit dig at the Bush administration's attitude -- which was widely blamed for watering down the terms …
DELIVERANCE for the World Bank (WB) could be damnation for the Indian government. When India surprisingly announced on March 30 that it would reject WB aid of Rs 500 crore for the Rs 13,000-crore Sardar Sarovar project, some observers commented the WB had arm-twisted India into refusing its funds for …
1931: The British government proposes a plan for development of the Narmada valley. 1961: Jawaharlal Nehru lays the foundation stone of the Sardar Sarovar project. 1969: A Narmada tribunal is set up to decide water distribution. 1974: At Indira Gandhi's behest, Rajasthan is given 1,215 million cubic metres (cum) and …
