10 September 2001
The G8’s mandate has been seriously questioned in recent months, but this has not stopped G8 ministers setting new directions for the World Bank and IMF.
As governments are again being asked to contribute to the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) facility, NGOs and others are raising questions about the role and effectiveness of the Bank’s lending through IDA to the poorest countries.
Heated debate is brewing between the US government which proposes that the Bank’s International Development Association (IDA) should provide up to 50 per cent of its resources as grants and some European governments (supported by the Bank) who argue that to do so would deplete IDA’s resources.
In August, Argentinian teachers, doctors and public workers went on strike and unemployed workers and students blocked roads to protest against rising unemployment and cuts in pensions and salaries.
It has been a bad summer for the World Bank Group arm which insures private investments.
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.
