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Options for democratising the World Bank and the IMF - Paul Ladd
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1. Introduction
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At their Spring meetings held in April 2003, the major shareholders of the World Bank and IMF considered how they could 'enhance the voice and participation' of developing countries in the decisions and policy-making of the institutions.
They agreed on a set of limited capacity building measures to help fellow developing country Executive Directors on their Boards, but failed to address substantive imbalances in the number of seats allocated to developing countries, and a skewed voting structure.
The Fund Executive Board to the IMFC is preparing a status report on the adequacy of IMF resources, the distribution of quotas, and the strengthening of Fund governance for its next meeting. In light of this, the shareholders requested the Boards of the Bank and Fund to:
"consider and elaborate upon options with a potential for broad support, taking account of shareholder and institutional implications."
The paper - prepared at the invitation of the Southern African Regional Poverty Network (SARPN) - discusses some of the issues around, and options for reforming, the governance structures of the World Bank and IMF. It is based on a submission that the UK development agency Christian Aid prepared as an input into the debate on improving developing country voice and participation in the World Bank and IMF. The submission was written and researched on behalf of Christian Aid by Angela Wood, formerly of the Bretton Woods Project, a UK based network for monitoring the policy and practices of the IFIs.
More information on this longstanding area of debate can be found at the website of the Bretton Woods Project:
http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/topic/governance/index.shtml
The communiquР№s from the meetings of the World Bank and IMF shareholders can be found at the following addresses:
http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/DCS/devcom.nsf/(communiquesm)/15F072E02473F18F85256D0700653045?OpenDocument
http://www.imf.org/external/np/cm/2003/041303.htm
http://www.imf.org/external/am/2003/about.htm
Paul Ladd, Christian Aid, May 2003
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