Debate about 'currency wars' and capital controls has dominated global economic policy making this autumn, but serious talks to reform a crisis-prone and outdated international monetary and financial system remain elusive.
We aim to use this page as a place to catalogue the latest civil society activity and analysis in relation to a new international conference on monetary and financial cooperation.
In early 2011 the World Bank will approve a new education sector strategy amid trends that mean that international goals on education will not be met. Zoe Godolphin of the University of Bristol argues that the Bank’s proposed approach fails conceptually because it does not accept that education is a human right. It also fails pragmatically because it continues to advocate a template approach instead of supporting genuinely country-driven priorities in education planning.
While official ambitions are to refashion the global financial architecture, the IMF has yet to publish new thinking on capital flows, the G20 discussion on global imbalances is mired in dispute and the debate on a new monetary system may go in the wrong direction.
In early May, more than 400 activists in Greece and campaigners and academics from across the world met in Athens to confront the current debt crisis of the European periphery and plan international solidarity and coordinated action against fiscal austerity imposed by governments.
With the resignation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a global coalition of campaigners has called for an open and merit-based process to elect the next IMF head.
NGO criticism of the World Bank's market-based approach to the global food crisis, particularly with regard to foreign agricultural investment, increased in recent months, while the Bank reiterated its existing position in April meetings.
As civil society groups and developing countries continue to warn against World Bank influence in the design and management of the new Green Climate Fund (GCF), further criticism is emerging of existing Bank climate initiatives.
The World Bank, in conjunction with the G20, is prioritising massive, cross-border infrastructure with private sector involvement, but has failed to involve any local communities.
Notes of meeting, Washington DC, September 23
While the G20 postponed decisions on issuing new special drawing rights (SDRs), the IMF-managed international reserve asset, the IMF completed its surveillance review and a new Fund report tackled the thorny issue of global imbalances.
A conference on November 14 of international regulators, policymakers and academics was held to discuss reform of the financial system and prevention of further social crisis.
New briefing by ActionAid USA and the Bretton Woods Project highlights research showing that IMF policy advice has undermined a just energy transition since the Paris Agreement was signed.
