On-The-Ground at the IMF Spring Meetings

Apr 26th, 2009 12:12 PM UTC
By Chandler Smith

A couple of us from ONE are at the International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington this weekend. We are here talking with a number of leaders and government officials, journalists and other organizations to remind the IMF how important it is to address ways to help developing countries. We are asking Finance Ministers and other officials to ensure that more people are not pushed even deeper into poverty due to the economic crisis and pushing for them to take action immediately because, by some estimates, as many as 53 million potentially face extreme poverty in the next year.

Yesterday, Finance Ministers made some recommendations for ways to handle the economic crisis at a meeting of the International Monetary Fund Committee. The document that details decisions made in the meeting (called a communique) described some small steps towards progress.

You’ve already heard how ONE, along with other groups like Oxfam and Jubilee, want the IMF to increase the amount of profits from approved gold sales directed to developing countries. Any progress on that issue would generally be communicated in this document. It appears that the International Monetary Fund Committee has not agreed to follow through on this request which means we still have a lot of work ahead of us on this issue. Otherwise, the document presents some reason for hope for a better deal for the world’s poorest countries.

The IMFC reaffirmed the G20 decision to double lending for low-income countries and instructed the fund to explore ways of making those loans more affordable. This is potentially good news, but the devil, as they say, is in the details.

The IMF now needs to immediately set to work developing an ambitious proposal which delivers increased resources for those who need it most. The Fund must be sure to do this in a way that does not push countries into more debt with unrealistic interest rates and excessive economic conditions attached. “The only conditions,” said ONE’s Oliver Buston, “should be transparency and accountability to citizens on the ground.”

You can read the communiqué in its entirety here.

-Chandler Smith

TAGS: IMF, IMF WB Spring Meetings, ONE, Policy News