The links between high debt burdens, lack of climate finance, austerity and the rise in political instability and fragility, conflict and violence remain largely neglected as IMF shareholders consider calls for a new SDR allocation, as proposed by the Bridgetown Agenda.
Over 60 per cent of low-income countries and more than 25 percent of emerging market economies are in or at risk of debt distress, and are in danger of being unable to fulfil their fiscal obligations.
This Inside the Institutions looks at the World Bank’s current approach to gender mainstreaming, reflecting on and comparing it to previous Bank approaches to addressing gender inequality.
Changes in leadership have been announced at the WB Independent Evaluation Group and IMF Independent Evaluation Office. Furthermore, the IMF IEO published its 2023 Work plan introducing two new governance evaluations of the IMF’s mandate and its Exceptional Access Policy.
Robert Bain and Mihaela Sirițanu join the Project as it expands its focus on financialisation and reform of the Bretton Woods Institutions.
More than 300 organisations and individuals call upon the IMF to urgently address one of the most glaring and easily rectifiable contradictions between its stated support for a just transition and its actions by immediately ending its surcharge policy.
The finance ministers for the Vulnerable Group of Twenty, a bloc of 58 developing country economies representing some 1.5 billion people, issued a communiqué on 16 October.
IMFC chair statement condemns Russia’s war while scrambling for new ideas to tackle inflation, debt, and climate change, as Covid response fades from attention.
G24 communiqué echoes calls for more drastic measures by international financial institutions to cushion the blow for low- and middle-income countries in the face of compounding global crises.
The Development Committee issued a chair statement instead of a communiqué, following its meeting on 14 October.
The Indonesian Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati acknowledged the G20 faced "many challenges" and "differences in view", with "escalating geopolitical conflicts worsening the economic situation.”
The World Bank and IMF meet for their Annual Meetings amid a turbulent economic and geopolitical context, and the realisation that the SDGs will not be met. Despite much discussion of urgent action required, little evidence of solutions to the multiple challenges facing the globe was on offer.
