Coverage of the communiques from the G24, G7, IMFC and Development Committee at the 2007 Annual Meetings of the World Bank and IMF.
Highlights of a 19 October discussion on the reform of IMF governance at the World Bank-IMF annual meetings 2007.
The shareholders of the IMF have squandered the political will for governance reform of the institution by making marginal changes that will fail to shift the balance of power.
The session focused on the World Bank's development strategy, poverty eradication goals, global inequality, and the threat of climate change.
A forthcoming World Bank commissioned book on large dams stresses their purported economic benefits whilst inadequately addressing serious social and environmental costs. The book is a further indicator of the Bank's preference for large dams.
The financial crisis has shrunk credit availability to the private sector, including in developing countries. The International Finance Corporation (IFC) plans to step into the gap, but there are questions about the likely development impact and implementation of environmental and social safeguards.
Notes of the seminar of annual meetings 2010
The Climate Investment Funds (CIFs) are financing instruments designed to pilot low-carbon and climate-resilient development through the multilateral development banks (MDBs). They are comprised of two trust funds - the Clean Technology Fund (CTF) and the Strategic Climate Fund (SCF).
A state's relationship with the IFIs and the type of assistance it receives is determined by its country classification. Some crucial types of classifications are: the World Bank's operational lending categories; the Bank's analytical categories used in the World Development Report; the IMF's operational and analytical categories, the IFC's frontier market category; the Bank's fragile state category; and the distinctions used by the Bank and IMF in deciding on and reporting success in governance
Coverage of the communiqu
The IMF is about to embark on a new round of negotiations over governance reform, but acrimony persists and already-agreed changes remain unimplemented.
While donors and the World Bank focus on IDA structural reform, the proposed IDA shift towards financing infrastructure and climate adaptation raises concerns over development impacts.
Understanding the Bank’s chequered history with public, community and civil society participation is key for understanding what is at stake and what to do next.
New paper analyses the IMF 16th Quota Review and identifies key governance reforms feasible in the current economic and geopolitical context.
