More than 100 civil society organisations, including Madhyam, have sought a major overhaul of the World Bank’s governing structures and policies following the scandal that led to the scrapping of its flagship publication, the ‘Doing Business’ report. This report ranks 190 countries on the Ease of Doing Business index. Following is the full text of the statement issued by CSOs on October 12, 2021:
In September, the World Bank announced that it would discontinue the publication of the Doing Business Report and Ranking (DBR). This overdue decision came after a series of internal audits and an investigation that revealed serious ethical improprieties, conflicts of interest inherent in the Bank’s Advisory Services and data manipulation in the development of the Doing Business. But the current revelations are just the tip of the iceberg of much wider issues.
By ranking countries on the grounds of regressive indicators, for 18 years the DBR has caused much harm, driving countries to a race to the bottom of business deregulation, eroding tax and social security systems, and removing critical workers’ protections. It undermined their ability to pursue industrial development and economic diversification in
— source madhyam.org.in | Oct 12, 2021