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.
International Monetary Fund (IMF)
Finance
News
Scaffolding for global architecture
In late October the G7 took limited steps to strengthen the international financial architecture, after the World Bank-IMF annual meetings ended with a plethora of proposals but no substantive agreement.
Knowledge
News
Discussions proposed on economic growth
The Bretton Woods Project has been working with Both ENDS and other organisations to discuss a possible meeting to discuss the fundamental way that the World Bank/IMF measure development: economic growth.
Finance
News
IMF hints at U-turn on capital controls
There are signs that the IMF may be reconsidering its stance that all capital flows are harmful.
Finance
News
“New debt crisis”
Investors’ growing aversion to risk is leading to a general withdrawal of finance from many Southern countries.
IFI governance
News
Towards a partnership Bank?
A refreshing new World Bank discussion paper frankly recognises that aid agencies are not cooperating effectively, and that mechanisms such as Consultative Groups and the Bank’s internal culture need to change.
IFI governance
News
Distilling lessons from the ESAF Reviews
Many NGOs have fed in comments to the IMF about its staff report Distilling the Lessons of the ESAF Reviews.
Finance
News
Russian lessons for the IMF
The Russian economic crisis, hot on the heels of the Asian meltdown, has provoked the Financial Times to comment that “the role of the International Monetary Fund in preventing crises has been comprehensively undermined.”
IFI governance
News
Blair proposes IFI reforms
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair made a speech at the New York Stock Exchange arguing that the World Bank and IMF have fundamental weaknesses and need to be reformed.
IFI governance
News
Oxfam Guide examines participation
An Oxfam publication by Tricia Feeney provides a very useful analysis of approaches to participation in development projects.
IFI governance
News
Sibling rivalry: can the Fund and Bank cooperate?
UK Secretary of State for International Development Clare Short told the Financial Times in April: “We are in a very silly situation. The international institutions are meant to be complementary, but the IMF keeps charging around taking other peoples’ jobs in areas where it is not necessarily competent”.
Conditionality
News
ESAF review: new IMF strategy urged
More flexibility and a new approach was suggested in the external review of the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility (IMF loans to poorer countries) published in March.
