Campaigners say Ireland should support Fundamental Overhaul of the IMF and World Bank
Pardon the delay on this. It should have been posted before the offending Annual World Bank - International Monetary Fund (IMF) meeting this weekend. Still, not much has changed since, so….
As finance leaders from around the world gather in Washington this weekend for the Annual World Bank - International Monetary Fund (IMF) meetings, anti-poverty campaigners in Ireland called for a fundamental overhaul of the Bretton Woods Institutions. The meetings, which take place every year, will focus on responding to the disastrous impacts of the global financial crisis.
Nessa Ní Chasaide, co-ordinator of Debt and Development Coalition Ireland (DDCI) commented, “Rich countries, including Ireland, are now experiencing the popular fear that results from a threatened loss of control over their economies. People in impoverished countries have been living through the disastrous outcome of imposed external control over their lives by the IMF and the World Bank for decades, which has been supported by richer countries, including Ireland. Now is the time to act to ensure that the Bretton Woods Institutions become accountable to the most impoverished people in the world, who have suffered most at their hands.”
Despite promises from the IMF to become more flexible, DDCI highlight that the policy conditions attached to the IMF’s massively scaled up crisis-lending (now increased from US$ 250 billion to US$ 750 billion) may actually prevent impoverished countries from recovering, push them into greater debt and slow down their long term development prospects even further. 75% of the so called ‘Least Developed Countries’ are cutting social spending in 2010 as a result of IMF lending conditions, despite the fact that they require massively scaled up expenditure to meet basic health and education needs as part of internationally agreed poverty reduction targets.
DDCI further highlight that the IMF is even requiring the devastated, flood hit country of Pakistan to end energy subsidies and increase consumption taxes which will hit the poorest people hardest, as part of their current loan agreements.
Ms Ní Chasaide continued, “Ireland’s current plans to update its international debt policy must include a strong commitment to protect the democratic right of impoverished countries to deliver their own solutions to poverty and inequality. This must include a commitment to end the failed policy conditionality practices at the IMF and World Bank, and to cancel the unjust, illegitimate debts of impoverished countries. With an estimated additional 64 million people living in poverty in 2010, anything less than this will be unacceptable.”
Ms Ní Chasaide further highlighted, “The World Bank also continues to fail the world’s poorest people. Despite some reductions in the levels of its conditions attached to loans, vulnerable countries such as Ghana are implementing high levels of lending conditions including possible privatisation of basic utilities. This is despite evidence from the United Nations showing that privatisation of water and electricity in Africa has been a widespread failure and has increased poverty and inequality.”
The World Bank-IMF meetings are being attended by the Irish Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan and Central Bank Governor, Patrick Honohan.
- World Bank - IMF Annual Meetings 2010
- Recent analysis of IMF crisis lending: Jubilee USA, ‘Unmasking the IMF, The Post-Financial Crisis Imperative for Reform‘, October 2010
- Recent analysis of the damage of World Bank policy conditions in Ghana
- United Nations briefing on the impacts of privatisation in Africa.
Debt and Development Coalition Ireland is a national network of development organisations, community groups and trade unions working for just financial relationships between rich and poor countries. DDCI is a member of the European Network on Debt and Development: www.debtireland.org
We welcome and encourage lively discussion from the public about articles on Irish Left Review. You can leave a comment using the form at the bottom of the page. Please read through the existing comments before posting your own.