7 April
14.00 CEST - 8.00 EST

Sustainable Infrastructure and the World Bank’s Green Resilient and Inclusive Development: Continuities, Changes and Alternatives

This panel investigates the World Bank’s new GRID Approach and its impact on the provision of sustainable infrastructure. It seeks to contribute to an urgent discussion about the nature of and remedies to the infrastructure gap identified by middle and low-income countries, the UN and the World Bank.

7 April
16.00 CEST - 10.00 EST

The Future is Public: Prioritising Public Services in the Light of Covid-19 and Climate Change

IMF policy advice profoundly affects the fiscal space available for low and lower-middle income countries to invest in public services. World Bank Group loans, advice and research significantly influence the direction of public service reforms. This session will explore the latest research, pooled from diverse civil society and union organisations, exploring how the present policies, technical assistance and loans/grants of these institutions impact public services. It will create space for discussion about alternatives, framed by a new manifesto that makes the case for public services as engines of sustainable development in response to the Covid-19 and climate crises.

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11 April
16.00 CEST - 10.00 EST

The IMF’s Resilience and Sustainability Trust: Can an IMF-managed SDRs trust deliver inclusive & sustainable recoveries?

Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) have the potential to become a key mechanism for financing a just transition to climate-resilient economies and supporting the Covid-19 recovery. Following its historic allocation of US$ 650 billion in SDRs, the IMF has proposed a Resilience and Sustainability Trust to facilitate the re-channeling of these resources to vulnerable countries. This panel will explore the Fund’s proposal, contrasting it with principles for fair SDR re-channeling set out in the CSO letter to the G20 in September 2021. The session will assess the value of SDRs, including through potential future allocations, in contributing to financing climate action and pandemic preparedness via meeting ambitious, nationally-determined goals.

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11 April
16.00 CEST - 10.00 EST

MISSING RECEIPTS: How did DFIs’ Covid-19 Response Affect Human and Environmental Rights during the Pandemic?

In order to respond to the pandemic, the WBG and other DFIs positioned themselves as central players for the global economic and
social recovery, committing billions of dollars. Civil society and communities have identified gross transparency and accountability gaps. Where has this funding gone? How have funds been utilised?

12 April
Time TBC

The World Bank Group’s investments in private healthcare provision: what implications for the right to health?

While an important part of the WBG strategy to respond to Covid-19 consists in mobilising private investment, private healthcare services pose challenges for equitable access. The session will present case studies showing how private sector engagement in healthcare might have negative impacts on the enjoyment of the right to health.

13 April
14.00 CEST - 08.00 EST

The IMF gender strategy: opportunity for progress or encroachment of neoliberalism?

Leveraging new research, on-the-ground testimony, and diverse expertise, this panel will critically explore if the IMF’s new Gender Strategy can challenge the IMF’s traditional macroeconomic paradigm of debt and austerity to instead promote policies that support a gender-just recovery to build an economy that works for women and all genders.

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13 April
16.00 CEST - 10.00 EST

Towards a World Bank private sector development strategy that puts people and planet before

Last year, the World Bank announced the discontinuation of the Doing Business Report, which encapsulated its vision of private sector development. This session will examine the harmful legacy of the DBR, including the inconsistency with the WB’s mandate, and how this risks being replicated in the Business Enabling Environment project. It will also discuss an alternative vision of private sector development that supports poverty reduction and economic diversification, and properly values people and the planet. It will identify the steps that states can take to build an ‘enabling business environment’ consistent with such a vision and the implications for the WB’s work.

14 April
16.00 CEST - 10.00 EST

National and Global Debt Mechanisms towards long term sustainability in a post Covid-19 recovery

Multiple crises have exacerbated Southern countries’ sovereign debt burdens and vulnerabilities, as well as increased the corporate debt. Global and national mechanisms are needed to be in place towards debt sustainability and an equitable recovery. This panel will address debt justice challenges with a view from the global south.

15 April
16.00 CEST - 10.00 EST

Examining the gendered and other impacts of IMF surcharges

This session will explore the extent to which the IMF's surcharge policy is consistent with its commitment to gender equality and a greener, smarter and fairer Covid-19 recovery. Examples of increased discrimination against women, and other negative impacts of the surcharge policy will be explored and actions to address the policy’s negative consequences.

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