The World Bank Group’s Corporatization of Development

The WBG remains influential in development policy, relied on by the international development community for its expertise as a purveyor of “knowledge and solutions”, promoting its technical assistance to developing countries and pushing its free-market, corporate-led economic and development framework. Illustrative of this is how, together with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), it has effectively shaped the narrative of the sustainable development agenda with catchphrases of “leaving no one behind” and moving “from billions to trillions” in development financing, similar to its “inclusive green growth” mantra prior to the Rio+20 summit. It still exerts heavy influence on aid allocations of the donor community through the macro-economic assessments it makes along with the IMF.

As clearly outlined by IBON International in a previous paper, the WBG has been increasingly financing transnational corporations (TNCs) – intentionally referred to as the innocuous ‘private sector’ – with its core business of advancing corporate agenda now flaunted in every development policy arena as incentivizing  the private  sector to support sustainable development.

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Contents

• WBG: Crafting 'development' in service of market and capital
• Cascade and Maximizing Finance for Development
• TNC and finance capital-driven agenda
• Grave implications for rights and development