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The IMF has committed itself to ending European dominance of selection of its managing director, and introducing an open, merit-based and transparent process. This paper sets out the three key elements to ensuring a successful process next time: a focus on selecting the best candidate available; a clear, fair, and transparent process; and the legitimacy gained from the backing of a majority of countries as well as IMF voting shares.
Full document.
February 17, 2011
The Honourable James Flaherty
Minister of Finance
Department of Finance Canada
140 O’Connor Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0G5
Dear Minister Flaherty:
Re: 2010-11 consultation with respect to the “Official Development Assistance Accountability Act”
Innovative mechanisms for financing development, and in particular the Financial Transactions Tax
by Fraser Reilly-King, Coordinator, Halifax Initiative Coalition
May 6, 2010
My name is Fraser Reilly-King and I am the Coordinator of the Halifax Initiative, a coalition of eighteen development, environment, faith-based, human rights and labour organizations. We focus on international finance issues, in particular with respect to the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and export credit agencies.
Commenting on The Social and Environmental Sustainability Policy, Performance Standards and Disclosure Policy
Introduction
The undersigned civil society organizations have prepared this joint submission to provide an overview of many of our concerns related to IFC’s Policy on Social and Environmental Sustainability, the Performance Standards, related guidance documents, and the Disclosure Policy. We believe these concerns should be explored and addressed further through IFC’s current consultation and review process.
Executive Summary
2010 will be a decisive year for Canada, and for the world. The deadline for meeting the world’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is only five years away. Our decisions on economic reform and climate change will determine the success of world’s efforts to reduce poverty and reverse dangerous global warming for the next generation and beyond. As host of the next G8 and G20 Summits, Canada can make the difference between relegating these aspirations to a distant hope in an uncertain future and confirming the possibility of achieving these goals in our lifetime. The consequences of reneging on our promises are unthinkable for the millions around the world looking towards a new model of globalization that is socially responsible, economically sustainable and environmentally just.
A Focus on Poverty, Economic Reform and Climate Change
In 2010 Canada will play host to the world. The Vancouver Olympics and the G8 and G20 Summits in Muskoka and Toronto will draw the attention of millions to Canada, its geography, its values, policies and practices. If 2008 was the year of China, then 2010 can be the year of Canada. Around the globe, Canadians proudly sport the Canadian flag in traveling as a symbol of Canadian democracy, openness and concern for human rights. Yet our great international achievements of the past—Canadian contributions to the establishment of international peacekeeping, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Ottawa Treaty to Ban Landmines and the International Criminal Court—are today clouded by concerns about Canada’s current role in climate change negotiations, Afghanistan, reform of the global economy and addressing global poverty.
December 22, 2008
The Honourable James Flaherty
Minister of Finance
Department of Finance Canada
140 O’Connor Street
Ottawa, ON K1A 0G5
Dear Minister Flaherty:
Re: 2008 consultation with respect to the “Official Development Assistance Accountability Act”
For pdf, click here.
The Hon. David Emerson
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, ON K1A OG2
October 10, 2008
Re.: Canadian priorities leading up to the Doha Financing for Development Review.
Dear Minister Emerson:
On April 26th, NSI President, Roy Culpeper, and KAIROS Canada's Global Economic Justice Coordinator, presented their views on the issues raised by the Government’s annual report on the Bretton Woods Organizations (the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank) before members of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development (SFAIT). The meeting was called by the Standing Committee in response to a request by the Halifax Initiative Coalition.
28-29 November, Oslo
In 2005 donor governments committed to significant increases in the volume and quality of development aid. A large amount of this is likely to be delivered by the World Bank and the IMF, which are also very influential in the spending allocations of other agencies. However, economic policy conditionality imposed by the World Bank and the IMF on developing countries has harmed development in some of the poorest countries and remains a key challenge if aid effectiveness is to be taken seriously.
We welcome the Norwegian government’s decision to convene a Conference on Economic Policy Conditionality. It provides a unique opportunity to promote vitally important reform to help development in the poorest countries of the world.
We call on our governments to strongly support the process and use this opportunity to formulate positions to end tying much-needed aid and debt relief to harmful economic policy conditions.
February 28, 2005
Indigenous Peoples Coordinator
Mailstop MC5-523
World Bank
1818 H Street
NW Washington DC 20433 USA
Email: indigenouspeoples@worldbank.org
RE: Comments on Revised Draft Operational Policy on Indigenous Peoples (Revised Draft OP 4.10)
Dear Indigenous Peoples Coordinator,
Please find below our comments on the Draft Operational Policy on Indigenous Peoples (Revised Draft OP 4.10).
We the undersigned Canadian organizations and representatives are writing to highlight the need for the World Bank to strengthen its draft OP 4.10 in order to ensure that the policy sufficiently meets international standards and guarantees on the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
In our opinion, for the operational policy to be seen to be credible and effective it must contain mandatory provisions that:
Disclosure Policy
Room U-11-003
World Bank
1818 H Street
Washington, DC, 20433
USA
Halifax Initiative submission to consultation on draft information disclosure policy
“Whenever you are in doubt, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest man you have seen. Ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny? Then you will find your doubt melting away”.
- Mahatma Gandhi
The World Bank, the IMF and FTAA
Halifax Initiative Statement on the FTAA
The proposed FTAA is nothing new for the Americas. It is another step in the forced:
- implementation of trade and investment liberalization,
- privatization of industry, agriculture and services,
- introduction of labour market "flexibility" (removal or enforced absence of labour standards),
- reduction in public sector expenditures in areas such as health, education and economic development maintenance of high interest rates to attract foreign investors.
Halifax Initiative Objectives for the World Bank
TO begin a transition from its role in financing conventional power loans to a new role in financing sustainable energy technologies the World Bank should :
CHANGE ENERGY POLICY:
1. Institute a Moratorium on Lending or Guarantees for any project that involves new exploration for fossil fuel reserves in natural forests, pristine and frontier areas.
2. Phase Out Lending and Guarantees for any World Bank project that involves coal and oil extraction.
3. Institute a Moratorium on Lending and Guarantees for fossil fuel power projects pending :
Evaluations of all current and future power projects in full consultation with the communities most affected by the project, respecting the right of the local populations to decline a project which may adversely impact them;
THE WORLD BANK, BY CREATING THE PCF NOW, IS ACTING UNDEMOCRATICALLY AND IT MUST WAIT FOR A DECISION BY THE CONFERENCE OF PARTIES OF THE KYOTO PROTOCOL.
A. Initial Questions
1. How can the World Bank Group recognize the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote the development of a Prototype Carbon Fund without addressing the fundamental problem?
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Submission
Appendix A
- Access to Information Legislation
- Summary of Access to Information Laws
Appendix B
- Comparative Analysis of Public Lending Agencies' Disclosure Regimes
Appendix C
- Disclosure Policies of Publicly Owned Lending and Government Agencies
Submission to the International Development Committee, House of Commons
On the Relationship between the World Bank and Sustainable Development
October 25, 2002
1. The Halifax Initiative, a Canadian coalition of non-governmental organizations, would like to thank-you for your commitment as Parliamentarians to receive evidence on the actions of the international financial institutions, from a broad range of witnesses, in order to better assist in ensuring the institutions’ accountability. We welcome this endeavor, and will advocate for it to be replicated in our own Parliament.
NGO Working Group
on the Export Development Corporation
A working group of the Halifax Initiative
Background paper
for the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade Hearings on Bill C-31 on the Export Development Act
October 15, 2001
The NGO Working Group on the Export Development Corporation is a coalition of 17 Canadian non-governmental organisations concerned about the social, human and environmental impacts of export credit agencies. The NGO Working Group has been participating fully in the legislative process on the Export Development Act since 1999, including the SCFAIT hearings in 1999, the public consultations on the EDC’s disclosure policy and environmental review framework, and the international campaign to reform export credit agencies which has focused on the OECD’s Export Credit Guarantees process.
"Taxing Currency Transactions for Development"
January 2001
ABSTRACT
In 1999, Amnesty International raised alarms about the killing of four indigenous people protesting a hydroelectric dam in Colombia that has devastated their food source and, if completed, would flood most of their land.
In 1998, an accident at a mine in Kyrgystan resulted in two tons of cyanide entering a river. A lack of an emergency response plan worsened the disaster, leaving two people dead and over 600 hospitalized.
In 1995, a gold mine in Guyana spilt 3.2 billion litres of cyanide and heavy metal effluent into the country’s main waterway, endangering the health of 23,000 people and killing thousands of fish.
Terrie O'Leary
Executive Director for Canada
World Bank, Room D12081
701 19th Street
Washington, DC, 20433
January 28, 1999
Dear Ms. O'Leary,
