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The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation (IFC) has quietly divested from New Globe Schools, better known as Bridge International Academies (BIA), a for-profit school chain operating in four African countries and India. The IFC has invested $13.5 million in BIA since 2014, with the intention of supporting the company’s expansion to other countries.

At the close of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Spring Meetings in Washington, Chris Stalker, Acting Head of Oxfam International’s Washington office, commented on the week's developments.

Ministers must deliver on their climate finance promises and support a second wave of attack on corporate tax cheats if their Lima meeting is to succeed, said Oxfam today. 

In a puzzling move, inequality was not on the agenda at the International Monetary Fund’s Press Briefing in the Peruvian capital today, while World Bank President Jim Kim said TPP could boost growth.

Oxfam will support the Voice2Paris global storytelling contest launched in August by the United National Development Programme (UNDP) by providing three additional fellowships for participating journalists to cover the UN Conference on Climate Change, COP21, in Paris in December.

Responding to the World Bank's proposal of a $12 billion initiative to help poor countries purchase COVID-19 vaccines, Anna Marriott, Health Policy Advisor at Oxfam, said: "The World Bank is right to be concerned about whether poorer countries will be able to afford COVID-19 vaccines and treatments and they should use their influence accordingly."

"The failure to cancel debt payments will only delay the tsunami of debt that will engulf many of the world’s poorest countries, leaving them unable to afford the investment in healthcare and social safety nets so desperately needed", said Jaime Atienza, Oxfam International's Debt Policy Lead, in reaction to the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting.

New Oxfam-commissioned research, carried out by Climate Analytics, uses modelling to assess the impact of aggregate Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) ambition. The technical specifications and calibration of the models used are explained in this paper. 

Speaking at the end of the Rio+20 UN Summit on Sustainable Development, Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive, Oxfam GB said:

This current draft of the 2019 World Development Report has interesting ideas, but also contains some dangerous proposals and assumptions which Oxfam believes might compromise the World Bank’s mission of eradicating poverty and achieving shared prosperity.