Bretton Woods Update 21
BRETTON WOODS ® update A DIGEST OF INFORMATION AND ACTION ON THE WORLD BANK AND IMF • creating systematic coordination of World Bank relations with European positions, including enhanced links between parliaments. Parliamentarians can learn a lot parliamentarians enter new phase from each other about how best to increase the transparency and accountability of global institutions. WWW.BRETTONWOODSPROJECT.ORG World Bank interactions with parliamentarians have been increasing in recent years. For example, some Brazilian parlia- They have now developed further,with a critical French parliamentary report and a mentarians, working with NGO net- work Redes Brasil, have in recent major World Bank conference with parliamentarians in London. years encouraged the Senate Com- mittee on Economic Affairs to scru- The World Bank conference brought of the World Bank so that whatever each year on its activities in the Fund tinize public contracts for some together 70 parliamentarians from programmes are put in place are and Bank. The second such official external loans. The US Congress has 35 countries, including many who people-centred and bottom-up". report was produced by the French helped secure changes to World chair key parliamentary committees. It remains to be seen how the Treasury last summer. French NGOs Bank procedures, for example on It covered issues including the role steering group decides to take the net- led by Agir Ici, which campaigned suc- information disclosure. Parliamen- of civil society, trade talks, debt relief work forward, in particular what infor- cessfully to make the report public, tary influence can be particularly and corruption. This, the second mation will be presented to MPs welcomed its publication but accused strong at times when the Bank is such conference organized by the through the initiative's website and it of being too general and failing to requesting more funding for its Bank, established a new World Bank newsletter.
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