international financial institutions

Reacting to the Bloomberg expose published on Friday 30th January, Linda Oduor-Noah, Health Policy Lead at Oxfam International and IFI Policy Adviser said:

This report examines the support to private healthcare provision in India by the World Bank’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Despite supporting private healthcare in the country since 1997, no healthcare results for lending and investments have been disclosed since the start of these operations over twenty-five years ago.

World Bank President Jim Yong Kim has yet again failed to profile his commitment to tackling climate change and inequality as central to his aim in eradicating poverty by 2030.

Increasingly, development money is being channelled through third parties such as banks or private equity funds. This report tells the human story behind the high finance and statistics.

'In terms of a plan to reduce extreme income inequality, we are left empty handed. There has been a lot of talk and a raw sketch of plan of action in the communique, but it’s just a drop in the bucket.”

Oxfam’s Nicolas Mombrial said:

Oxfam's Nicolas Mombrial said: “The IMF and World Bank have admitted the dangers of skyrocketing inequality, but they’re not showing any concrete signs of dealing with the problem.

Following Oxfam’s January report revealing that just 85 people owned the same wealth as the bottom half the world’s population, Forbes has updated its “billionaires' list”, showing that extreme inequality has worsened– just 67 people at the top now own half the wealth.

Oxfam applauds the World Bank's new strategy to halve extreme poverty by 2020 and end it by 2030, but swift action is now needed to bring the strategy to life.

In reaction to the plenary remarks delivered by World Bank President Jim Kim, Oxfam’s head of Washington office, Nicolas Mombrial, said: