Open letter calls on the World Bank to end its Doing Business Rankings and Reports
Ahead of the launch of the Doing Business 2021 Rankings and Reports of the World Bank, 346 civil society organisations including GI-ESCR, social movements, trade unions, academic allies, and independent experts from 75 countries have already signed an open letter calling on the World Bank to put an end to its Doing Business Rankings and Reports, which only favour foreign investments and corporations, to the detriment of workers and the environment.
In August 2020 the World Bank announced the suspension of the Doing Business report and ranking in order to investigate “a number of irregularities.” As several CSOs, social movements, labor unions and human rights groups world over have shown, the DB index has been used to drive policy and regulatory changes in favour of foreign investments and corporations, to the detriment of workers and the environment. The DB rankings have encouraged a race to the bottom between countries who turned to slashing labour regulations and relaxing social and environmental standards to climb on the Bank’s ranking and further attract private investments.
See:
open letter to the World Bank
links to a brief summary of the new developments and a summary of long-standing criticisms of the report in English and Spanish.