BIC Updates
The latest news from the Bank Information Center

• IFC pledges to increase commitment as mining sector is hit by economic downturn and low demand
  Meanwhile, IFC mining investments in Guinea face uncertainty after the government revoked half of the IFC-backed Simandou concession, and over the future of the massive Guinea Alumina Project as Guinea's president dies.
• $5 billion in World Bank loans in the works for South Africa’s power utility
  African Development Bank also contributing record loans to address power shortage.
• Weekly roundup: IFIs in the news
  Read all the headlines concerning the international financial institutions from the past week
• West African Gas Pipeline comes online at last
  Meanwhile, people displaced by the project finally receive monetary compensation, nearly four years after being impoverished through a resettlement process that denied them the option of the land compensation they were entitled to.
• Zambia dam among IFC’s first casualties of the financial crisis
  Plummeting copper prices have caused investors to shy away from the $1.5 billion Kafue Lower Gorge Dam, which is designed exclusively for use by foreign mining companies.
• Stakeholders convened in Cairo to debate contentious issues surrounding the West Delta project
  Concerned parties threaten to file a court case against the Egyptian government if they do not receive satisfactory answers.
• Bangladesh: Overwhelming thumbs-down given to UK mining project
  A Mines and Communities (MAC) article spotlights two independent reports critical of the Phulbari coal mining project in northwest Bangladesh.
• Weekly roundup: IFIs in the news
  Read all the headlines concerning the international financial institutions from the past week
• Phulbari Coal Project: critique of environment plans sets off alarms
  The Phulbari Coal Project threatens numerous dangers and potential damages, ranging from the degradation of a major agricultural region in Bangladesh to pollution of the world's largest wetlands. The project's Summary Environmental Impact Assessment, and its full Environmental and Social Impact Assessment are replete with vague assurances, issuing many promises of future mitigation measures.
• Over 160 CSOs issue joint statement calling for UN climate fund
  Civil society groups argue that the fund is essential to any new global climate agreement involving the large-scale transfer of financial resources to help poorer nations reduce emissions that cause global climate change.
• World Bank: culprit in increased hunger?
  Free market policies as part of the Structural Adjustment Programs that the World Bank attached to their aid throughout the 1980s are partially to blame for increased world hunger.
• ADB watchdog submits critique on Safeguards Review
  Network charges that poor quality of 2nd draft implies that President Kuroda has been unable to convince the ADB bureaucracy to uphold and support his vision of the ADB as the leading regional development organization on poverty alleviation and climate change.
• As Yemen suffers from water crisis, Bank support for water sector hinges on private sector solutions
  A recent meeting between the World Bank and the Yemeni Planning Minister focused on preliminary negotiations on a proposed water sector project. However, the central question remains whether the Bank is ensuring water access for the poor.
• Weekly roundup: IFIs in the news
  Read all the headlines concerning the international financial institutions from the past week
• BIC comments on ADB safeguards 2nd draft
  The 2nd draft, contrary to Asian Development Bank President Kuroda’s standard-setting public assertions that no weakening of the policy would occur, represents a significant dilution of the Bank’s existing safeguards.
• Civil Society and IDB workshop: Strategic Environmental Assessments and sustainable development
  Civil society organizations (CSOs) from 10 South American countries have invited the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) to engage in dialogue about the use and misuse of Strategic Environmental Assessments (SEAs) in a two-day workshop to be held in Bogota, Colombia (Dec. 2 and 3, 2008). The workshop will feature presentations on the IDB's progress in developing a strategic decision making system that includes clearer rules for SEAs. CSOs will present lessons learned and recommendations for more effective use of SEAs drawn from a decade of experience with high risk infrastructure projects.
• Directors of IIRSA reject petition for participation of civil society
  The President of the Directors of IIRSA and current Director of the Ministry of Planning of Colombia, Carolina Renteria, reported on Monday, November 10 the decision to reject a hearing on IIRSA requested by 20 civil society organizations from 8 countries. The CSOs submitted a proposal to create mechanisms to ensure the participation of civil society in the planning process of integration within the framework of IIRSA, in addition to other potential integration processes as well as for the implementation of Strategic Environmental Studies (SEA) for groups of IIRSA projects.
• Weekly roundup: IFIs in the news
  Read all the headlines concerning the international financial institutions from the past week
• Pessimism over ADB's draft of social and environmental lending criteria
  ADB consults with civil society organizanizations this week on their social and environmental lending criteria. Critics worry that the strategy will not reduce poverty in the region.
• ADB evaluation finds low returns on private equity fund investments
  Internal ADB evaluation finds unsatisfactory returns, lack of focus for selection, weak safeguards.
• BICECA Monthly Bulletin - November 2008
  In this edition you will find the following articles: 1) Change and Continuity for the BICECA website; 2) Colombia: Pasto Mocoa Highway - IDB Commitment to Sustainability under Scrutiny; 3) Perú: The restoration of the rights of indigenous peoples has a long way to go; 4) Ecuador: Big Push for Manta-Manaos Corridor.
• Weekly roundup: IFIs in the news
  Read all the headlines concerning the international financial institutions from the past week.
• BIC releases brief on World Bank's climate change policy in South Asia
  The brief details the World Bank's climate change policy, different carbon funds, and the World Bank's climate change mitigation and adaptation work in South Asia.
• Weekly roundup: IFIs in the news
  Read all the headlines concerning the international financial institutions from the past week.
• As WB Group committments in MENA region surpassed $3bn in 2008, questions about effectiveness remain
  The World Bank Group is adhering to its pledge for greater engagement in the Middle East and North Africa. However, data on the development impacts on the poor are lacking, while other data suggest that many Bank projects in the region are at risk.
• Weekly roundup: IFIs in the news
  Read all the headlines concerning the international financial institutions from the past week.
• Corruption and lack of transparency in Tajik extractives industry
  Talco, a major aluminum mining company controlled by Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon, is being investigated by the IMF to address issues of extreme mismanagement of funds and lack of openness.
• The IMF is back in business
  In the wake of the global financial crisis, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is experiencing a resurgence as the world’s "financial crisis firefighter." The upcoming G20 financial summit has placed the IMF as the central institution in charge of “crisis management