This townhall was for CSO representatives accredited to the Annual Meetings. The CSO Discussants made initial remarks on Fund and Bank policies and were followed by comments from Mr. Kim and Ms. Lagarde. This was then followed by a general discussion on issues of concern to CSO representatives.
This session discussed the conclusions reached on the global governance role of civil society by the Civil Society and Accountable Global Governance project.
This was a roundtable discussion between IMF and WBG Executive Directors (EDs) with accredited civil society representatives to promote an exchange of views and discussion on key issues of the 2012 Annual Meeting agenda: global economy, disaster resilience, social and environmental safeguards, and global health.
Bretton Woods Project communications survey prize winners selected.
The World Economic and Social Survey 2012, published by the UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), has called for a change in the SDR allocation formula.
Egypt has been in talks to get over $11 billion in foreign aid, of which at least $7.5 billion will be contingent on IMF approval, sparking concerns from activists over policies likely to be imposed by the Fund, just as it has ended its conditionality review.
The IMF's role as a member of the Troika, the grouping of the European Central Bank (ECB), European Commission and the Fund in the eurozone crisis, is attracting new criticism. Deepening recessions in eurozone nations have brought the efficacy and appropriateness of Troika-led reforms into question.
The hypothesis that IMF lending is subject to political influence, "cannot be discarded" according to Andrea Presbitero and Alberto Zazzaro in the Autumn 2012 edition of World Development.
Tentative schedule of the World Bank-IMF annual meetings in Washington DC, from 10 to 14 October, 2012 in Tokyo, Japan.
The IMF has modified its mandate for scrutiny of its members' economies, pushing for greater oversight of large important countries. Doubts remain over its ability to influence the policy process in its biggest members.
In August, the IMF published data on sovereign debt restructuring cases between 1950 and 2010, detailing pitfalls in the process including creditor holdouts and litigation, communication amongst stakeholders and the scope of debt relief in past restructurings.
The launch of the World Bank's new annual study, the Global financial development 2013 report (GFDR) and an IMF conference on financial crises, both in September, have renewed scrutiny of the Bank and the IMF's support for the development of private sector financial systems and the role their policy advice played in the global financial crisis.
As the world celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it is time the IMF’s shareholders use the opportunities provided by the anniversary and growing calls for reforms to the international financial architecture to redesign the IMF’s governance structures and programmes to ensure they are consistent with the commitments outlined in 1948 and with international human rights law.
Influence of unreformed international financial institutions and creditor interests in debt solutions in low- and middle-income countries plagued by delay and ineffective when undertaken.
