The World Bank is pushing through the biggest changes in decades to the social and environmental rules that cover its lending, drawing fire from activists who are accusing it of betraying vulnerable populations across the world’s poorest countries.
After four years of consultations and contentious negotiations among its shareholder countries, the bank’s governing board yesterday unanimously approved an update of the so-called “safeguards” in place since the 1980s.
It is part of a bigger effort by president Jim Yong Kim — who is in the final year of what has been a controversial first term — to make the institution more nimble and address concerns from borrowers about the often burdensome process of securing loans.