The IMF’s Contingency Credit Line (CCL), agreed during the Spring meetings, will not help developing countries facing financial crisis because the qualification conditions are too demanding.
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
IFI governance
News
Bank seeks balanced development strategies
Bank President James Wolfensohn has announced a new initiative which aims to balance economic with non-economic analysis and enable real participation and transparency in drawing up country strategies.
Knowledge
News
Bank/Fund growth model questioned
Both ENDS and the Bretton Woods Project co-organised a roundtable meeting in early March to discuss the World Bank and IMF’s core economic models.
Rights
News
Post-crisis social code diluted to weak Bank principles
There is danger that the aims and scope of the social principles (formerly the Social Code), which was proposed by Gordon Brown as a fourth pillar of the new international architecure, will be watered down to become simply a framework for the Bank’s social policy.
IFI governance
News
Financial Stability Forum agreed
The G7 will establish a Financial Stability Forum (FSF) to improve the monitoring and regulation of financial markets.
IFI governance
News
IMF social staff appointed
The UK Department for International Development is funding 2 social advisors to join the IMF’s Africa department to advise on the social implications of the IMF’s ESAF programmes.
Conditionality
News
Brazilians protest spending cuts
Brazilian NGOs, trade unions, students and opposition parties protested outside the World Bank’s office in Brasilia against the government’s agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank’s decision to suspend loans to two state governments.
News
Surveys show tough views on Bank and Fund
Respondents to two recent surveys revealed widespread continuing mistrust of Bank and Fund approaches.
News
IMF “serious” about improving NGOs relations
Useful Contacts
WB/IMF roles
News
Bank is “not the IMF”
Bank President James Wolfensohn spent much of the Bank Annual Meeting distancing his institution from its sibling, insisting that it is not a “second level IMF” and does not provide bail-out funds.
Conditionality
News
WB/IMF collaboration plans
In response to the external ESAF Review, the World Bank is to collaborate with the IMF in pilot projects in Nicaragua, Vietnam, Tajikistan, Ethiopia, Cameroon and Zimbabwe over the next 12-18 months.
IFI governance
News
Transparency
The G7 has agreed to the G22 Working Group on Transparency and Accountability’s recommendation to establish a formal mechanism to evaluate IMF policies and programmes, but it is not clear what form this will take.
Featured briefings
16 October 2024
The Bretton Woods Observer: Autumn 2024
16 October 2024
The lost call for international financial architecture reform in the G20
At the 80th anniversary of the World Bank and IMF, global civil society must maintain pressure on the Brazilian and South African G20 presidencies to ensure the forth Financing for Development Conference in 2025 results in urgently required international financial architecture reform.
1 October 2024