International Financial Institutions | Pesticide Action Network North America

Visit PANNA's new web site dedicated to monitoring World Bank projects likely to influence use of pesticides and/or genetically engineered crops in borrower countries.

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Introduction

International financial institutions (IFIs)--such as the World Bank (WB) and regional multilateral development banks (MDBs), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Trade Organization (WTO)--are among the most powerful institutions in the world today.

In general, the stated purpose of these institutions is to develop rules to govern global trade and investment and provide policy advice and financial support (e.g. loans) to enable governments and corporations to meet national development objectives. In actuality, the organizations function to advance the interests of the wealthier nations and the multinational corporations that stand to profit the most from neoliberal trade arrangements and from the new global economic order. They do so by promoting a vision of economic development characterized by hyper-reliance on unregulated markets (while ironically leaving untouched the growing consolidation of industry players). Together these institutions exert enormous influence over national and international approaches to rural development and the management of natural and agricultural resources.

Lending institutions such as the World Bank and the regional development banks provide loans, frequently in exchange for specified economic policy "reforms" to be undertaken or adhered to by the borrower country. These institutions maintain intense pressure on borrower countries to adopt policies of "free" (unregulated) trade and macroeconomic structural adjustments that prioritize foreign investment, hard currency earnings and, in recent years, the privatization of social services and public goods. Forced by loan conditionalities to cut domestic spending, most governments sacrifice the social, economic and environmental programs that are vital to safeguarding the livelihoods of millions of poor farmers, fishers and rural communities the world over.

For decades, civil society groups and movements have condemned the IFIs for the devastating effects of their policies and practices. In recent years, popular protests have swelled into a global movement challenging the legitimacy of the IFIs, and putting these institutions on the defensive. New partnerships and coalitions between Southern and Northern movements and organizations and across issues and sectors of society are forming and will be required in order to successfully expose and challenge the systemic and deep-rooted problems of global governance today.

Project history

PANNA's IFI advocacy work focuses on the World Bank, specifically the Bank's pesticide and pest management policies and practices.

For years, the World Bank has encouraged borrower governments to shift the basis of their agricultural production away from local and indigenous models of sustainable agriculture towards increasingly corporate and industrial models of export-oriented agriculture. The increasing reliance on expensive external inputs such as toxic chemical pesticides that almost invariably results leads to severe acute and chronic health effects, environmental destruction, loss of local food sovereignty and further social dislocation.

In response to severe criticism from PAN and other civil society groups in the 80s and 90s, the World Bank revised its policy on pest management. The current policy (approved in 1998) promises to help borrowers reduce reliance on pesticides, prioritizes use of ecological alternatives to pesticides and highlights the important role of farmers. However, a high percentage of World Bank agricultural loans violate this policy, and instead promote agricultural practices that rely on the use of toxic pesticides and that favor the intensification and industrialization of agriculture, threatening farmers' health, contaminating their soil, water and air and undermining local food sovereignty.

In the late 90s, PANNA monitored the World Bank's implementation of its pest management policy. We worked with farmers' organizations and local NGOs to investigate on-the-ground impacts of Bank lending in Indonesia, China, Mexico, the Philippines and parts of West Africa. We conducted joint advocacy campaigns with our partners to expose policy violations and lobby for change. Our experiences demonstrated that independent community-based monitoring is a powerful tool and a critical part of the global campaign demanding accountability from the World Bank.

What PANNA does now

Currently PANNA maintains a database of World Bank projects that we consider likely to affect pesticide use and pest management practices and/or that promote the development of genetically engineered crops. By providing basic information about problematic projects, we hope that concerned individuals and organizations will have a starting place to begin their own investigations of World Bank project impacts in their countries and local communities.

We monitor and investigate the Bank's partnerships with pesticide and biotech corporations, exposing conflicts of interest that undermine the Bank's ability to implement its own pest management policy.

And we continue to challenge the World Bank and the regional development banks on issues of governance, transparency, accountability and commitment to maintaining strong environmental and social safeguard policies.

How to get involved

Visit PANNA's database of World Bank projects that includes projects we consider likely to exacerbate pesticide problems

Download and use our Community Guide to Monitoring the Bank's Pest Management Policy. Help us translate this Guide into other languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, Indonesian and others!

Ask questions of and demand information from the World Bank and from your region's development bank!

Contact Program Coordinator, Marcia Ishii-Eiteman, by email or voice at (415) 981-6205 ext. 325

Resources

Article -- Genetically Engineered Crops: a Risky Investment for Southern Economies
September 15, 2004

Report -- Citizen Monitoring to Improve Compliance with the World Bank's Pest Management Policy in Mexico
February, 2004

Report -- The Persistence of Pesticide Dependence: a Review of the World Bank's Pest Management Policy, 1999-2003
January, 2004

News -- World Bank holds 2nd Roundtable Discussion with Ag Industry CEOs
January, 2004

Guide -- Surveillance de la politique de Lutte Intégrée des ravageurs de la Banque Mondiale - un guide communautaire
Decembre, 2003

Guide -- Monitoring the World Bank's Pest Management Policy: A Guide for Communities
December 2003

Letter -- Environmental Defense and Partners to Participants of the IDA's Foreign Operations Conference
October 31, 2003

Review -- Pesticide Policy Compliance at the World Bank, August 2003
August, 2003

Case study -- Fighting Pesticide Dependence in a World Bank Project in China
August, 2003

Report -- The Struggle to Reduce Reliance on Pesticides in World Bank Projects: Can Community-Based Monitoring Lead to Improved Policy Compliance
March, 2003

Article -- Pesticide and Biotech Companies: The Wrong Partners for the World Bank
2002

Article -- Pesticides and the World Bank: Agricultural Development Projects Fail to Promote Sound Pest Management
2002

Article -- The World Bank's Failure to Curb Pesticide Use: Why It Matters
2002

Letter -- Pesticide Action Network Regional Centers and Partners to World Bank
December 5, 2002

Paper -- Countering corporate influence at the World Bank: the mobilization of transnational coalitions.
December 2000

Article -- NGOs challenge World Bank's Rural Development Strategy
August 2002

Article -- Community monitoring of integrated pest management versus conventional pesticide use in a World Bank project in Indonesia.
July/Sept 2002

Letter -- World Bank Rural Development Response to Pesticide Action Network North America
July 30, 2002

Letter -- Over 150 groups criticize World Bank's Rural Development Strategy
July 8, 2002

Report -- Partnerships to Improve Implementation of the World Bank's Pest Management Policy: Monitoring Pest Management in the World Bank-Funded Anning Valley Project, Sichuan Province, China
July, 2002

Paper -- IPM--is the World Bank Doing Enough?
April 2002

Article -- Pesticides and pest management at the World Bank: 20 years after Rio. August 2002

Article -- Taking the World Bank to task: a case study of successful community-based monitoring in Indonesia. April 2001.

Article -- All pain, no gain: how structural adjustment hurts farmers and the environment. April 2001.

Article -- New policy, old patterns: a survey of IPM in World Bank projects. April 2001.

Article -- Indonesian farmers urge World Bank reform. August 1999.

Article - Beyond the ban: pesticide use continues in Indonesia. 1997.

[Full ref: Ardhianie, N., E. Hickey & M. Ishii-Eiteman. 1997. "Beyond the ban: pesticide use continues in Indonesia." Global Pesticide Campaigner 7(3), 1997.]

Factsheets

Here are resources about the World Bank and efforts to hold it accountable for promotion of pesticides and other destructive practices. Also see our General resources, such as the PESTIS document database .

Bayer Corporate Fact Sheet (Factsheet)

2002. Describes corporate history, major pesticides manufactured, and instances of severe pesticide contamination. PANNA. The factsheet.

Dow Corporate Fact Sheet (Factsheet)

2002. Describes corporate history, major pesticides manufactured, and instances of severe pesticide contamination. PANNA. The factsheet.

DuPont Corporate Fact Sheet (Factsheet)

2002. Describes corporate history, major pesticides manufactured, and instances of severe pesticide contamination. PANNA. The factsheet.

Monsanto Corporate Fact Sheet (Factsheet)

2002. Describes corporate history, major pesticides manufactured, and instances of severe pesticide contamination. PANNA. The factsheet.

Syngenta Corporate Fact Sheet (Factsheet)

2002. Describes corporate history, major pesticides manufactured, and instances of severe pesticide contamination. PANNA. The factsheet .

Resources available elsewhere

Our collection of links to key related resources available elsewhere on the Internet. Feel free to submit or correct a link .

Bank Information Center (BIC) (Web site)

BIC's mission is to empower citizens in developing countries to influence Multilateral Development Bank financed operations and policies in a manner that fosters social justice and ecological sustainability. BIC aims to democratize the International Financial Institutions to ensure citizen participation, information isclosure, full adherence to environmental and social policies, and public accountability. http://www.bicusa.org/

Bretton Woods Project (BWP) (Web site)

The Bretton Woods Project works as a networker, information-provider, media informant and watchdog to scrutinise and influence the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Through briefings, reports and the bimonthly digest Bretton Woods Update , it monitors projects, policy reforms and the overall management of the Bretton Woods institutions with special emphasis on environmental and social concerns. http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org

IFI Watchnet (Web site)

IFIwatchnet connects organisations worldwide which are monitoring international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank, the IMF, and regional development banks. http://ifiwatchnet.org

50 Years in Enough: U.S. Network for Global Economic Justice (Web site)

A coalition of over 200 U.S. grassroots, women's, solidarity, faith-based, policy, social- and economic-justice, youth, labor and development organizations dedicated to the profound transformation of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Network works in solidarity with over 185 international partner organizations in more than 65 countries. http://www.50years.org

Probe International World Bank Campaign (Web site section)

Probe International focuses on the environmental, social, and economic effects of Canadian aid and trade. See World Bank campaign page. http://www.probeinternational.org

World Bank (Web site)

Policy documents, information on current projects and other information for Bank watchers. http://www.worldbank.org