Journal Article

The Emperor's New Clothes: The World Bank and Environmental Reform

Rich, Bruce

1990

Overview

The discrepancy between the World Bank's (WB) environmental rhetoric & its failure to institutionalize environmental reforms is examined. The WB's increase of its environmental staff in the late 1980s & issuance of a series of environmental research papers are outweighed by WB-financed ecological failures; disillusionment with WB environmental reforms has increased over the last decade. It is argued that a lack of coordination between the WB's operations staff policy & those of the planning & research divisions, contradictory pressures of member governments, & a multilateral system of global economic development have thwarted WB efforts to respond to international pressures for environmental reform. Nongovernmental organizations must increase their pressure on the WB to become a vehicle of sustainable development worldwide. L. Baker

• Publisher: World Policy Institute,MIT Press,Duke University Press, NC & IL
• Subject: Banking policy / Banking reforms / Banks / Developing countries / Ecological sustainability / Entwicklungsorganisation / ENVIRONMENT / Environmental Attitudes / Environmental conservation / Environmental Policy / Environmental Protection / Environmentalism / International bank for reconstruction and development / International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) / International banking / International Economic Organizations / Loans / Nongovernmental organizations / Reform / REFORM, REFORMERS / Reforms / Regulation / Rhetoric / Seriousness / Supporters / Sustainable agriculture / Sustainable development / Umweltschutz / Weltbank / WORLD BANK / World Problems