Latest Review of Quotas expected to be quashed, as US signals it will block reform.
Voting rights
Conditionality
Analysis
IMF “rebuked” over role in Troika and its lending to Greece, Ireland and Portugal
IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office has found the Fund’s 2010/2011 Troika lending to Greece, Ireland and Portugal fell short in terms of surveillance, design, implementation and decision making, and described controversial decisions as appearing “rubber-stamped”.
IFI governance
News
IMF quota reforms: The fight for democratic governance continues
Uneven votes shares and global power imbalances shape the IMF voting shares, as it prepares to shake up its voting quotas
IFI governance
News
Developing countries seek new path for Fund governance reform
2010 agreement to reform IMF voting shares in favour of developing countries flounders as IMF governance reforms blocked by US Congress, again. Developing countries expressed anger and raised concerns about the Fund’s ability to deal credibly and effectively with new and ongoing financial crises.
IFI governance
Background
IMF & World Bank decision-making and governance
This Inside the Institutions examines the recent and ongoing reforms at the IMF and World Bank, and places them in context of existing structures and processes.
IFI governance
Analysis
IMF governance: one step forward, one step back
Reform to the IMF’s voting shares shifts some power to emerging countries, but the institution’s leadership selection process remains opaque and undemocratic.
IFI governance
News
Developing countries seek to bypass stalled IMF and World Bank reform, risking US veto
Reforms to World Bank and IMF voting shares continue to stall, leaving developing countries with no greater say in how they are run.
IFI governance
Analysis
Impasse at the IMF
This briefing shows that multilateral governance is at risk if long-overdue IMF quota and board reforms are not ratified.
IFI governance
News
US Congressional legislation threatens IMF and World Bank plans
US legislature’s spending bill blocks IMF governance reform, insists the World Bank pay reparations to communities that suffer human rights abuses, and bans US support for large dams or extractive projects in tropical forests.
Finance
Analysis
The IFIs in 2013: year in review
The Bretton Woods Project review of the most important developments at the World Bank and IMF in 2013.
Featured briefings
15 August 2019
The World Bank and gender equality: Development Policy Financing
New BWP briefing offers critical gender analysis of World Bank lending instrument to borrowing countries.
30 July 2019
The Bretton Woods Observer: Summer 2019
30 July 2019
The Bretton Woods Institutions and the second crisis of multilateralism
At 75, the World Bank and IMF face a crisis of multilateralism in no small part of their own making as failed economic policies have resulted in skepticism of the international order they helped to create.