scholarly journals Adrian Robert Bazbauers and Susan Engel: The Global Architecture of Multilateral Development Banks: A System of Debt or Development?

2021 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 169-176
Author(s):  
Mirek Tobiáš Hošman

This book explores the evolution of the 30 functioning multilateral development banks (MDBs). MDBs have their roots in the growing system of international finance and multilateral cooperation, with the first recognisable MDB being proposed by Latin America in financial cooperation with the US in the late 1930s. That Inter-American Bank did not eventuate but was a precursor to the World Bank being negotiated at Bretton Woods in 1944. Since then, a complex network of regional, sub-regional, and specialised development banks has progressively emerged across the globe, including two significant recent entrants established by China and the BRICS. MDBs arrange loans, credits, and guarantees for investment in member states, generally with the stated aim of fostering economic growth. They operate in both the Global North and South, though there are more MDBs focusing on emerging and developing states. While the World Bank and some of the larger regional banks have been scrutinised, little attention has been paid to the smaller banks or the overall system. This book provides the first study of all 30 MDBs and it evaluates their interrelationships. It analyses the emergence of the MDBs in relation to geopolitics, development paradigms and debt. It includes sections on each of the banks as well as on how MDBs have approached the key sectors of infrastructure, human development, and climate. This book will be of particular interest to researchers of development finance, global governance, and international political economy.

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 83-99
Author(s):  
Stephanie De Moerloose ◽  
Makane Moïse Mbengue

While judicial bodies have proliferated in the last fifty years in a process that has been deemed “quasi-anarchic” (Guillaume, G., 2000) creating a risk of inconsistency in their decisions which would endanger the international law system, quasi-judicial bodies such as Multilateral Development Banks' accountability mechanisms are not spared by this legal phenomenon. They have diverse proceedings and jurisdictions, operate with different sets of environmental and social safeguards, but may confront similar factual scenarios, especially in the case of co-financing. The recent Kenya Electricity Expansion Project presented before the World Bank and the European Investment Bank’s accountability mechanisms illustrates that, through a managerial approach, potentially conflicting findings can be avoided. This paper aims to show that quasi-judicial bodies can constitute a source of inspiration for the integrated development of international law.


Author(s):  
Lichtenstein Natalie

Chapter 2, Highlights, offers a survey of the key features of the AIIB Charter that define AIIB, in close comparison with the Charters of other multilateral development banks (AfDB, AsDB, EBRD, IADB and the World Bank). The highlights of the coming Chapters are summarized, offering answers to the basic questions about AIIB: Why establish AIIB? (Mandate, Chapter 3) What will AIIB do? (Investment Operations, Chapter 4) Who will join AIIB? (Membership, Chapter 5) How will AIIB be funded? (Capital and Finance, Chapter 6) How will AIIB be run? (Governance, Chapter 7) How was AIIB first set up? (Transitions, Chapter 8) How will the organization work? (Institutional Matters, Chapter 9). The Chapter concludes with some observations about heritage and innovation in the AIIB Charter, outlining principal similarities and differences with the other Charters.


Author(s):  
Mark Pieth

This chapter discusses administrative sanctions and preventive measures that go beyond criminal law to fight corruption such as states and Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs). They have developed a set of regulatory sanctions more directly aiming at the prevention of abuses by companies and individuals and protecting the interests of their respective institutions. Domestic procurement rules as well as the regulations developed by MDBs foresee cancellation of loans in the face of concrete misbehavior. Domestic agencies would also be able to stay subsidies or export insurance. Furthermore, domestic agencies and MDBs have introduced detailed sanctions procedures allowing debarment of corporations and individuals from future participation in procurement or from eligibility for export insurance. The debarment procedures established by MDBs may be regarded as a worldwide example of such administrative sanctioning, and one of the largest is the World Bank.


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Nesti

A remarkable example of coordination between IGOs to deal with corruption and fraud in public procurement is the “Agreement for the Mutual Enforcement of Debarment Decisions” signed by the World Bank and the main regional Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) in 2010. This article will try to examine the characteristics of the MDBsʼ cross debarment agreement and its significance for the MDBs that adhered to it in terms of the process of harmonization that resulted from it. Secondly, the article discusses the potential benefits and challenges connected to the extension of this agreement to other MDBs or to other initiatives that have been initiated in parallel to, or in imitation of, the MDBsʼ cross debarment agreement.


2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Suresh Nanwani

AbstractThis article offers an examination of the development and operation of accountability mechanisms in multilateral development banks. These mechanisms are gateways for citizens, as non-state actors, to file their grievances in projects that adversely affect them against these international organisations at the international level. The study focuses on the accountability mechanisms established at the World Bank (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and International Development Association) and the Asian Development Bank, and other initiatives and avenues provided by these institutions addressing accountability issues. The article offers an analysis of barriers encountered by claimants in accessing these mechanisms based on insights generated by way of claims filed and participation in accountability procedures. It suggests ways in which civil society's demands for accountability in multilateral development banks and other financial institutions can move forward.


1996 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Head

What is the governing law for loan agreements entered into by the World Bank and other multilateral development banks (MDBs) in carrying out their public sector lending? That question was first definitively addressed about thirty-five years ago. This article examines the question anew, against the backdrop of recent developments in practice, especially at the newest of the MDBs, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).


2005 ◽  
Vol 104 (679) ◽  
pp. 77-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Holiday

In the immediate aftermath of the 1992 peace accords, El Salvador was cited frequently by the United Nations and even the World Bank as a country that, with the international community's help, effectively managed its transition from civil war to peace and reconciliation. Thirteen years later, only the US government views the Salvadoran model so favorably.


Author(s):  
Lichtenstein Natalie

Chapter 10, Reflections, draws on the histories of AIIB’s predecessors to single out themes that may prove relevant for AIIB’s future development. Examples are taken from the stories of the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), the Asian Development Bank (AsDB), the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Principal themes are: economic and financial environment; international relations and politics; funding; membership changes; major shareholders; clients and operations; leadership and governance; and attitudes toward change. While AIIB has been established in a world far different from the second half of the twentieth century that saw the birth of its predecessors, many of these aspects of the development of these multilateral development banks may prove similarly influential as AIIB’s future unfolds.


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