Report
Nancy Birdsall
{
"authors": [
"Nancy Birdsall"
],
"type": "other",
"centerAffiliationAll": "",
"centers": [
"Carnegie Endowment for International Peace"
],
"collections": [],
"englishNewsletterAll": "",
"nonEnglishNewsletterAll": "",
"primaryCenter": "Carnegie Endowment for International Peace",
"programAffiliation": "",
"programs": [],
"projects": [],
"regions": [
"North America"
],
"topics": [
"Trade"
]
}
REQUIRED IMAGE
Other
World Bank of the Future: Victim, Villain or Global Credit Union?
Published on Sep 25, 2000
Source: Carnegie
Street protesters in Prague in September 2000 are not the only ones complaining about the World Bank. Conservative critics are pointing the finger too. On the left, champions of social justice argue that World Bank loan conditions hurt the poor. On the right, conservatives claim lending practices crowd out private investment. Critics from all sides compound public confusion about globalization and the impact on people of global financial institutions.
Nancy Birdsall dissects the critics' positions and proposes World Bank reforms rarely put on the table: end "cookie-cutter pricing" or the outdated tradition of a single interest rate and loan term no matter what; give countries like China and Brazil more voting power; and don't give up on much-maligned conditionality but fix and enforce it. Birdsall notes that governance of international financial institutions will never be perfectly representative nor accountable, in part because of failures of democracy in borrowing countries. But, conceiving of the World Bank as a club, she argues for balanced reform not shutdown.
Click on the link above for the full text of this Policy Brief.
About the Author
Nancy Birdsall
Former Senior Associate
- The Role of the Multilateral Development Banks in Emerging Market Economies
- Washington Contentious: Economic Policies for Social Equity in Latin AmericaReport
Nancy Birdsall, Rachel Menezes
Recent Work
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
More Work from Carnegie Europe
- A Grand Strategy for Europe’s Clean Industrial FuturePaper
Europe’s industrial supply chains leave it vulnerable to global shocks. The EU needs a pragmatic green industrial strategy that balances durable partnerships and bolsters homegrown clean tech without sacrificing low-carbon ambition.
Milo McBride, Pauline Gerard
- From Trade Dependence to Geopolitical Leverage: The EU in an Era of Weaponized InterdependencePaper
As geopolitical rivalry weaponizes global supply chains, the EU’s true vulnerability lies in emerging-risk imports. For these goods, suppliers are growing more concentrated, substitution more difficult, and political risk is looming.
Sinan Ülgen
- The EU Equivocating on Turkey Is Bad GeopoliticsCommentary
Following Ursula von der Leyen’s gaffe equating Turkey to Russia and China, relations with Ankara risk deteriorating even further. Without better, more consistent diplomatic messaging, how can the EU pretend to be a geopolitical power?
Sinan Ülgen
- Rewiring the South Caucasus: TRIPP and the New Geopolitics of ConnectivityArticle
The U.S.-sponsored TRIPP deal is driving the Armenia-Azerbaijan peace process forward. But foreign and domestic hurdles remain before connectivity and economic interdependence can open up the South Caucasus.
Thomas de Waal, Areg Kochinyan, Zaur Shiriyev
- Global Instability Makes Europe More Attractive, Not LessCommentary
Europe isn’t as weak in the new geopolitics of power as many would believe. But to leverage its assets and claim a sphere of influence, Brussels must stop undercutting itself.
Dimitar Bechev
