company:the world bank

  • #Madagascar citizens demand transparency in a fishy deal with China · Global Voices
    https://globalvoices.org/2018/10/31/madagascar-citizens-demand-transparency-in-a-fishy-deal-with-china

    n September 2018, Hery Rajaonarimampianina, the incumbent president of Madagascar, announced that a 10-year fishing agreement had been finalized between the Malagasy Agency for Economic Development and Promotion of Enterprises and Taihe Century Investments Developments Corporation, a Chinese business consortium.

    According to sources in Madagascar, the president had negotiated the deal with almost no input from his administration, parliament or civil society. Madagascar’s main development partners, including the World Bank and the European Union were not informed of the deal either.

    #pêchs #chine

  • Joseph Stiglitz on artificial intelligence : ’We’re going towards a more divided society’
    https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/sep/08/joseph-stiglitz-on-artificial-intelligence-were-going-towards-a-more-di

    The technology could vastly improve lives, the economist says – but only if the tech titans that control it are properly regulated. ‘What we have now is totally inadequate’ It must be hard for Joseph Stiglitz to remain an optimist in the face of the grim future he fears may be coming. The Nobel laureate and former chief economist at the World Bank has thought carefully about how artificial intelligence will affect our lives. On the back of the technology, we could build ourselves a richer (...)

    #algorithme #solutionnisme #discrimination

    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/002e96b2303195022c1097058391c279580ed4b2/0_0_7360_4417/master/7360.jpg

  • Climate change soon to cause movement of 140m people, World Bank warns | Environment | The Guardian
    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/mar/19/climate-change-soon-to-cause-mass-movement-world-bank-warns

    Climate change will result in a massive movement of people inside countries and across borders, creating “hotspots” where tens of millions pour into already crowded slums, according to the World Bank.

    More than 140 million people in just three regions of the developing world are likely to migrate within their native countries between now and 2050, the first report on the subject has found.

    #climats #réfugiés #migrants #migrations

  • Leaked report says World Bank violated own rules in Ethiopia
    http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/24445

    The World Bank repeatedly violated its own rules while funding a development initiative in Ethiopia that has been dogged by complaints that it sponsored forced evictions of thousands of indigenous people, according to a leaked report by a watchdog panel at the bank.

    The report, which was obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, examines a health and education initiative that was buoyed by nearly $2 billion in World Bank funding over the last decade. Members of the indigenous Anuak people in Ethiopia’s Gambella province charged that Ethiopian authorities used some of the bank’s money to support a massive forced relocation program and that soldiers beat, raped and killed Anuak who refused to abandon their homes. The bank continued funding the health and education initiative for years after the allegations emerged.

    The report by the World Bank’s internal Inspection Panel found that there was an “operational link” between the World Bank-funded program and the Ethiopian government’s relocation push, which was known as “villagization.” By failing to acknowledge this link and take action to protect affected communities, the bank violated its own policies on project appraisal, risk assessment, financial analysis and protection of indigenous peoples, the panel’s report concludes.

    “The bank has enabled the forcible transfer of tens of thousands of indigenous people from their ancestral lands,” said David Pred, director of Inclusive Development International, a nonprofit that filed the complaint on behalf of 26 Anuak refugees.

    #terres #BM #éthiopie #évictions_forcées #peuples_autochtones

  • World Bank : Lebanon : Developing an internet ecosystem to keep young talent at home
    http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2014/12/23/lebanon-developing-an-internet-ecosystem-to-keep-young-talent-at-home

    The World Bank is introducing a new investment lending approach to capture this. Pending the approval of Lebanon’s Council of Ministers and its ratification by the Lebanese parliament, the Mobile Internet Ecosystem Project (MIEP) aims to develop a local ‘internet ecosystem’ to help Lebanese talent to remain in the country, bring local skills up to international standards, and boost the global competitiveness of Lebanon’s traditional industries through ICT.
    http://www.mie-p.org

    Lebanon offers a unique regional testing ground for crowdsourcing and other open source innovation. It hosts a number of top universities in the Middle East and has a highly educated population, providing the critical base for putting ideas into practice. Many Lebanese are bilingual or trilingual, making it easier for them to develop of applications for international markets. The economy operates in multiple currencies.

    […]

    As part of the MIEP project, staff from universities and from Lebanon’s technology eco-system worked this November to co-create the Mobile Innovation Hub (MiHub), a collaborative space for addressing Lebanon’s critical economic challenges and the pressure caused by its brain drain. Together, they emphasized the need for Lebanon to develop its competitive edge by using the mobile internet to produce successful innovators and problem solvers.
    http://lebanon.innovationhubs.org

    (Je référence pour l’info, hein, pas par enthousiasme ; je crains que – généralement – ce genre de choses ne soient que des pièges à pognon pour financer une poignée de startups lancées par des enfants de la bourgeoisie libanaise.)

  • Le Maroc joue le solaire

    Expansion of Morocco’s Largest Solar Complex to Provide 1.1 Million Moroccans with Clean Energy

    Washington, September 30th, 2014­ –

    The World Bank Group’s Board of Executive Directors approved today a US$519 million project to support Morocco’s ongoing efforts to reduce its dependency on fossil fuels by developing its renewable energy resources. The project will back the government’s strategy of harnessing power from the sun through the use of concentrated solar power technology.

    Morocco is the Middle East’s largest energy importer, and depends on fossil fuel imports to generate over 97 percent of its energy. The Noor-Ouarzazate Concentrated Solar Power Projectwill support the Moroccan Agency for Solar Energy to finance the expansion of Morocco’s first utility-scale solar energy complex, helping increase its capacity and output, especially during peak hours.

    “Morocco stands at the forefront of climate-friendly policies in the region,” said Inger Andersen, World Bank Regional Vice President for the Middle East and North Africa. “The country is well-positioned to benefit from its head-start at a time when other regional powers are beginning to think more seriously about their own renewable energy programs.”

    An initial 160 megawatt phase of the project, approved by the Bank in 2011, is currently under construction. The new project will finance the second 350 megawatt phase, and include the installation of solar parabolic troughs and a solar energy tower.This project will be funded through US$400 million from the Bank and US$119 million from the Bank administered Clean Technology Fund. 

    With its bold investment in green energy, Morocco is also setting a global example for the kinds of actions called for at this year’s United Nations Climate Summit. The expanded solar plant is expected to reduce carbon emissions by 700,000 tons per year. While delivering these environmental benefits, this project will also contribute to energy security, job creation, and energy exports.

    “Apart from creating jobs, the construction of the plant and the development of Morocco’s Solar Plan will establish a future source of reliable green energy,” said Simon Gray, World Bank Country Director for the Maghreb. “The Noor-OuarzazateSolar Complex alone will supply power to 1.1 million Moroccans by 2018.” 

    Other contributors toward the project are the African Development Bank, European Investment Bank, l’Agence Française de Développement, Kreditanstalt fuer Wiederaufbau, and the European Commission.

    The World Bank currently has a portfolio of 22 projects in Morocco, amounting to a committed financing of US$2.44 billion, providing a diverse range of support in areas such as private sector, financial sector and governance reform, green growth and promotion of renewable energy, access to basic services such as rural roads, water, sanitation, the reduction of vulnerability and social exclusion, and improvements in agriculture and solid waste management. Since 2011, the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation, has stepped up its engagement in Morocco and has invested US$590 million to support private sector development in the country.

  • The World Bank Can’t Sacrifice the Poor to Stay in the Game | David Pred
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-pred/the-world-bank-cant-sacri_b_5649540.html

    Every year around the world some 15 million people are uprooted from their land and homes to make way for “#development.” This slow tsunami of human misery does not attract much media attention, but forced displacement for development projects — such as mines, oil and gas pipelines, hydropower dams, and urban renewal schemes — has become a full-blown crisis in the developing world. (...)

    That is why watchdogs were so alarmed when the World Bank released a draft of its new social and environmental safeguards last week. These

    #terres #landgrab #développement #banque_mondiale

  • World Bank Accused of Destroying Traditional Farming to Support Corporate Land Grabs | oaklandinstitute.org
    http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/press-release-world-bank-accused-destroying-traditional-farming-su
    OaklandInstitute lance une campagne avec plusieurs partenaires pour dénoncer les processus mis en place par la #Banque_mondiale en matière d’#agriculture qui encouragent les #accaparements de #terres dépouillent les petits agriculteurs. Je n’ai pas encore eu le temps de regarder tout ça de près.

    Today, the Oakland Institute and /The Rules, along with other NGOs, farmer and consumer organizations from around the world launch a campaign, Our Land Our Business, to hold the World Bank accountable for its role in the rampant theft of land and resources from some of the world’s poorest people—farmers, pastoralists, and indigenous communities, many of whom are essential food producers for the entire planet.

    “The World Bank is facilitating land grabs and sowing poverty by putting the interests of foreign investors before those of locals,” said Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute.

    “Smallholder farmers and herders are currently feeding 80 percent of the developing world. Casting them aside in favor of industrial farming corporations from the West betrays the World Bank’s reckless and short term approach to development,” said Alnoor Ladha, Executive Director of /The Rules.

    The Bank’s “Doing Business” rankings, which score countries according to how Washington officials perceive the “ease of doing business” there, have caused many developing-country leaders to deregulate their economies in hopes of attracting foreign investment. But what the World Bank considers beneficial for foreign business is very often the exact opposite for existing farmers and herders.

    In the agricultural sector, the rankings encourage governments to commoditize their land—and to sell or lease it to foreign investors, regardless of environmental or social impact. Smallholder farmers, pastoralists, and indigenous people are casualties of this approach, as governments and foreign corporations work hand-in-hand to dispossess them of their land—and gain World Bank approval in the process.

    The results have already been devastating.

    • Communiqué de Presse : La #Banque_Mondiale Accusée de Destruction des Exploitations Agricoles Traditionnelles dans le but de Soutenir l’Accès à la Terre des Grandes Entreprises
      http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/communiqué-de-presse-la-banque-mondiale-accusée-de-destruction-des

      Les classements « Doing Business » de la Banque Mondiale, qui notent les pays en fonction de la façon dont les technocrates de Washington estiment qu’il est « facile d’y faire des affaires », ont poussé de nombreux dirigeants de pays en développement à déréglementer leurs économies dans l’espoir d’attirer les investissements étrangers. Cependant, ce que la Banque Mondiale considère bénéfique pour les entreprises étrangères est très souvent l’exact opposé de ce qui l’est pour les paysan-ne-s et les éleveurs de ces pays.

      Dans le secteur agricole, les classements « Doing Business » ont encouragé les gouvernements à faire de leurs terres une marchandise - et à la vendre ou à la louer à des investisseurs étrangers, indépendamment de l’impact social ou environnemental de telles politiques. Les paysan-ne-s, les éleveurs et les peuples autochtones sont victimes de l’étroite collaboration des gouvernements et sociétés étrangères qui travaillent main dans la main pour les déposséder de leurs terres, et par là même obtenir le soutien de la Banque Mondiale.

      Les conséquences sont dévastatrices. Par le biais des réformes et des politiques préconisées par la Banque, la Sierra Leone a ôté 20 pourcent des terres arables aux populations rurales du pays et les a loués à des producteurs de canne à sucre et d’huile de palme étrangers. Au Libéria, des géants de la production d’huile de palme britanniques, malaisiens et indonésiens ont obtenu des baux de long terme sur plus d’1,5 millions d’acres de terres qui appartenaient traditionnellement aux communautés locales.

      Le problème de l’accaparement des terres est maintenant sur le point de s’aggraver. Sous la pression du G8 et avec le soutien financier de la Fondation Gates, la Banque clone la méthodologie de son classement fétiche pour l’appliquer à un nouveau projet appelé le « Benchmarking the Business of Agriculture » (BBA). L’objectif explicite du BBA est de promouvoir « l’émergence d’un secteur agricole commercial fort ». Les classements du BBA récompenseront en fait la déréglementation des secteurs agricoles et permettront de faciliter l’accaparement des terres dans le monde entier.

      « Nous faisons front avec les paysan-ne-s, les éleveurs et les peuples autochtones des pays en développement qui aujourd’hui sont en passe d’être écrasés sous le rouleau compresseur pro-entreprise qu’est la Banque Mondiale », ajoute Anuradha Mittal. « Des initiatives comme les classements ‘Doing Business’ de la Banque encouragent les gouvernements à voler les pauvres pour donner aux riches. Cela doit cesser. »

  • The U.S. wants its allies to spend more on defense. Here’s how much they’re shelling out.
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/03/26/the-u-s-wants-its-allies-to-spend-more-on-defense-heres-how-much-the

    According to NATO’s 2013 annual report, Washington was paying 73 percent of the alliance’s defense expenditures, up from 68 percent in 2007.

    The World Bank also has a helpful map and table with spending data:

    Dépenses militaires (% du PIB) | Données | Carte
    http://donnees.banquemondiale.org/indicateur/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS/countries?display=map

    Les données sur les #dépenses_militaires du SIPRI sont dérivées de la définition de l’#OTAN qui englobe toutes les dépenses courantes et en capital pour les forces armées, notamment les forces du maintien de la paix, les ministères de la défense et autres agences gouvernementales participant à des projets de défense, les forces paramilitaires si elles sont jugées comme étant formées et équipées pour assurer des opérations militaires et les activités dans l’espace militaire.

    De telles dépenses comprennent les dépenses engagées pour le personnel civil et militaire, notamment les pensions de retraite du personnel militaire et les services sociaux pour le personnel, l’exploitation et la maintenance, l’approvisionnement, la recherche et le développement et l’aide militaire (dans les dépenses militaires du pays donateur).

    Sont exclues de ces dépenses, la défense civile et les dépenses attribuables à des activités militaires précédentes, telles que les prestations des vétérans, la démobilisation, la conversion et la destruction d’armes. Cette définition ne peut toutefois pas être appliquée à tous les pays étant donné qu’il faudrait que beaucoup plus d’information détaillée soit rendue disponible au sujet de ce qui est inclus dans les budgets militaires et dans les dépenses militaires hors budget. (Par exemple, les budgets militaires peuvent couvrir ou non la défense civile, les réserves et forces auxiliaires, la police et les forces paramilitaires, les forces à double mission comme la police militaire et civile, les subventions militaires en nature, les pensions pour le personnel militaire et les cotisations à la sécurité sociale versées par une partie du gouvernement à une autre.)

  • BBC News - World Bank postpones $90m Uganda loan over anti-gay law

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-26378230

    The World Bank has postponed a $90m (£54m) loan to Uganda over its tough new anti-gay law that has drawn criticism from around the world.

    World Bank officials said they wanted to guarantee the projects the loan was destined to support were not going to be adversely affected by the new law.

    The loan was intended to boost Uganda’s health services.

    The new law, enacted on Monday, strengthens already strict legislation relating to homosexuals in the country.

    #ouganda

  • World Bank Is Criticized for Honduran Loan
    http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/11/world/americas/world-bank-is-criticized-for-honduran-loan.html

    The World Bank ombudsman issued a stinging critique Friday of the bank’s private-sector arm over a loan to a Honduran palm-oil company engaged in a violent conflict with farm workers over land tenure.

    The study concluded that the International Finance Corporation, which lends to companies in developing countries, failed to follow its own requirements when it first approved the 2009 loan to Corporación Dinant, and that its supervision afterward was inadequate.

    #Honduras #complicité #banque_mondiale

  • Les petits e-Atlas de la Banque mondiale

    World Bank Publications

    http://publications.worldbank.org/index.php?main_page=page&id=22&cid=EXT_TwitterWBPubs_P_EXT

    The World Bank eAtlas mapping tool, developed in cooperation with Harper Collins UK, allows users to easily and quickly transform data into customized visual comparisons across time, countries, and regions. The resulting full color maps and graphs can subsequently be exported for sharing, used in presentations, and saved for later use.

    Each eAtlas also allows users to...

    map indicators by latest available data (per country) or a given year
    compare two maps side by side
    read descriptions of the thematic groups of indicators
    find indicators by word search or through related themes
    create time-series graphs for specific countries
    view data in a ranking order table or bar graph

    alter map colors, intervals, and more
    bookmark, share, export maps or data files
    import your own data (temporary not available)

  • Lebanon : : World Bank : Capital inflows skipping productive sectors
    http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Business/Lebanon/2012/Mar-31/168623-world-bank-capital-inflows-skipping-productive-sectors.ashx#axz

    The World Bank said Friday that most of the capital inflows into Lebanon have been channeled into banks and real estate projects rather than productive sectors. Domestic monetary policies in Lebanon have been constantly oriented toward securing permanent financial inflows to the country. These policies, together with strong banking regulation and tight monitoring from the Central Bank, have magnified foreign inflows that are essentially related to oil wealth and regional oil price.

    Les impasses du modèle économique libanais.