15 November 2004
African governance has been “polluted by western intrusion,” James Wolfensohn, World Bank president said at the United Nations African Development Forum in Addis Ababa in October. He told politicians and delegates they must tap their own traditional systems and values. In recognition of this new insight, observers wonder if structural adjustment lending will be renamed ‘traditional systems and value lending’.
African governance has been polluted by western intrusion
As the world celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is time the IMF’s shareholders use the opportunities provided by the anniversary and growing calls for reforms to the international financial architecture to redesign the IMF’s governance structures and programmes to ensure they are consistent with the commitments outlined in 1948 and with international human rights law.
Influence of unreformed international financial institutions and creditor interests in debt solutions in low- and middle-income countries plagued by delay and ineffective when undertaken.
