Infrastructure is always a vexed issue. The program is full of pork barrelling, whoever is in power. Even when that’s not involved, what to build and when it should be built is often contested.
The annual meetings of the IMF and the World Bank were held in in Marrakech, Morocco in October 2023.
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The World Bank and IMF need to continue evolving if they are to remain fit for purpose in the 21st century.
People march with a banner that reads in Spanish ‘Stop the adjustment, out with the IMF,’ in Buenos Aires, Argentina on May 9, 2023.
(AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
Thirty years ago the World Bank recognised that its position was untenable. It put in place mechanisms to make the bank more accountable to ordinary people.
Imran Khan addresses his supporters during an anti-government march.
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The IMF sends its staff on two types of mission to member countries: to assess the state of the country’s macro economy or to assess the need for financial support.
Rich nations need to provide far greater climate adaptation financing to low income countries and plug the holes that siphon their limited fiscal resources to tax havens.
The World Bank’s ease of doing business index incentives countries to do whatever they can to improve their ranking.
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Allegations that World Bank officials manipulated country rankings in its much-used ease of doing business index highlight a deeper problem with these types of rankings.
IMF to inject $650 billion in Special Drawing Rights into the global economy.
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The IMF’s injection of US$650 billion worth of Special Drawing Rights into the global economy opens a window for African countries to reform their relationship with the fund.
US President Richard Nixon’s decision to end the US promise to convert dollars into gold changed the global financial system.
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Nixon’s decision left the IMF without a clearly defined role. Under the leadership of the industrialised countries, it began to fashion a new more intrusive and ideological role.
IMF programmes run the risk of having too many conditions. This may drive countries into financial disaster. And back to the IMF again.
Haitian police patrol outside the presidential residence in Port-au-Prince on July 7, 2021, after President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated.
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The inefficient vaccine allocation rules currently in place must be replaced by new cooperative institutional structures and more concrete steps by the Group of Twenty (G20) countries.
A child plays in a street in the port village of Paquitequete near Pemba, northern Mozambique. The region suffered decades of neglect, and major gas projects have failed to deliver local benefits.
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Sam Jones, United Nations University e Finn Tarp, University of Copenhagen
The development strategy based on foreign investment in natural resources projects has not delivered economic growth or security. What’s needed is an inclusive vision based on local realities.
More governments and aid organizations are giving poor people cash.
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