International Monetary Fund (IMF)

Overturn Roe v Wade protest defending US abortion rights. Photo: Matt Hrkac/Wikimedia

Gender

Analysis

Civil society defends feminist demands amidst threats to women’s rights and fresh questions over the role of the BWIs

Anti-gender rhetoric, furthered by the new US administration, brings fresh questions over the approach of the World Bank and IMF to gender equality, given their controversial track record.

15 April 2025
Argentinians demonstrate against IMF debt payments. Credit: Nick Photoworld/ ShutterStock

IFI governance

News

New Independent Evaluation Office findings expose political pressures and over-optimism in IMF’s Exceptional Access Policy

Evaluation finds Exceptional Access Policy has been applied inconsistently, influenced by political pressures, and used as a substitute for debt restructuring while failing to attract private capital.

15 April 2025
Ethiopia Minister of Finance at the Horn of Africa Initiative Ministerial meeting, Brussels December 2023. Photo: Christophe Licoppe/ European Union/Wikimedia

Finance

News

Private lenders’ resistance to Ethiopia's debt relief highlights urgent need for debt architecture reform

Ethiopia becomes the latest victim of the dysfunctional Common Framework, as private lenders continue to hold out on its debt restructuring with significant human rights, social and economic consequences.

15 April 2025
Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva speaks during the Curtain Raiser event leading up to the Annual Meetings at the IMF Headquarters, 8 October 2019, Washington, DC. Photo: Cory Hancock

Conditionality

News

The IMF’s 2025 Conditionality Review: a test of reform or repeat?

Despite past acknowledgments of flawed policies, austerity-driven programmes continue to deepen economic hardship, entrench inequality, and prioritise creditors over sustainable development.

15 April 2025
Palace of Nations - UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo: Trabantos/ Shutterstock

Rights

News

UN Human Rights Council debt roundtable concludes debt crisis is a human rights crisis

UN Human Rights Council’s Seventh Intersessional Meeting calls for states to use FfD4 to agree reforms that enable states to deliver on their human rights obligations.

15 April 2025

Knowledge

Background

Bretton Woods Project Annual Report 2024

In 2024 BWP continued to support global civil society in pushing for transformative change, advocating for a multilateral system that is democratic, inclusive, transparent, accountable and responsive to people, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.

25 February 2025 | Annual report (BWP)

Finance

News

FfD4 is a feminist issue

FfD4 civil society feminist workstream calls for gender and race equality, human rights and systemic change in the international financial architecture, while groups plan strategic convening in Morocco.

15 April 2025

Finance

News

BWIs use frozen Russian assets as part of $50 billion support to Ukraine

BWIs engineer creative ways to provide financial support to Ukraine using frozen Russian assets as back up, in contrast to lack of support for debt-stricken African countries.

12 December 2024

Knowledge

Background

Recommended resources on the World Bank and the IMF 2024

BWP's collection of recommended reports, briefings, CSO letters and other resources published on the World Bank and the IMF in the past year .

12 February 2025
illustration of the Bretton Woods Observer winter 2024, presenting the World Bank globe sitting on a hidden pile of gold looking at the Wall Street Bull (which represents the financial sector)

Environment

Analysis

COP29 sees MDBs climate finance take centre stage, as civil society brands new climate finance goal a ‘betrayal’

Rich countries agree to provide a paltry $300 billion in public finance by 2035 including funds channelled through MDBs, as Small Island States and Least Developed Countries stage walkout.

12 December 2024
Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and Communications Department Director Julie Kozack field questions at the Civil Society Townhall during the 2024 Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC, on October 21, 2024. Credit: IMF Photo/Alyssa Schukar

Conditionality

Analysis

Who’s afraid of the grassroots? IMF policymaking in the era of social discontent

IMF proposes a grassroots communication strategy to convince the public of the need for further austerity measures as publications reveal fear that social unrest will make reforms ‘unimplementable’.

12 December 2024
2024 IMF/World Bank Group Annual Meetings. Credit: Simone McCourtie / Flickr.

Finance

News

IMF’s PRGT review places the burden of financing the program on low-income countries

As the IMF increases cost of lending for LICs by introducing a tiered interest mechanism to the PRGT, CSOs and V20 Group call instead for an SDR interest rate cap to reduce the cost of lending and for sale of gold reserves to address the funding gap.

12 December 2024