The G20 leaders have met three times, giving the IMF $1 trillion of new resources with which to fight the fires of the global financial crisis. The World Bank has also been put on the job – to respond to what the World Bank and IMF have called a “development emergency”. How well are the [...]
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A scorecard for the G20, the IMF and the World Bank
Comments OffOctober 26, 2009 / aid, financial crisis, imf, world bank -
April 6, 2009 / financial crisis, G20, imf, world bank
The G20 deal was an extraordinary achievement. But for all the positives, it’s important to recognise what the G20 has not delivered. If one of the benchmarks for measuring success is delivery for sub-Saharan Africa and the world’s poorest countries, the outcome is mixed at best – and disappointing at worst. The result is somewhere around 5/6 out of 10.
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April 2, 2009 / aid, climate change, financial crisis, G20, imf, trade, world bank, wto
The G20 leaders’ communiqué today has provided a vital boost for global trade, but several important trade-related commitments – to developing countries, to sustainable development and to multilateralism – were disappointing or missing. With a further G20 meeting scheduled before the end of the year, leaders must now deepen and expand their trade agenda to address these shortfalls. At the same time, they must acknowledge the democratic deficits of the G20 and explore more inclusive alternatives for global economic decision-making – in particular those that would ensure greater representation of the world’s poorest countries.
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March 17, 2009 / G20, trade, world bank, wto
The recent food, fuel and financial crises have imposed large external shocks on households and firms in all developing countries. They have prompted questioning of the risks and rewards of globalization and identified areas where the global governance of trade urgently needs improvement. (Here, I broadly define good global trade governance as international cooperation in the form of a set of agreed rules that reduce the negative spillovers of national policies affecting international flows of products and production factors.) At the same time, the financial crisis has revealed the robustness and importance of the trading system. A major feature of the current crisis is the dog that did not bark: that is, to date, we have not seen the widespread imposition of the types of trade protection that characterized the 1970s and early 1980s, not to mention the 1930s.
Tags: developing countries, G20, trade, wto
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March 17, 2009 / financial crisis, G20, imf, trade, world bank, wto
Development should be the centerpiece of reforming the global economic architecture. Pressing to conclude a World Trade Organization (WTO) deal to close the Doha Round based on the current proposals circulating in Geneva would be counter productive. Instead, we offer five policies for reforming global trade that will enable economic development and stimulate the global demand needed for a global recovery.
Tags: developing countries, G-20, trade, wto
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March 17, 2009 / aid, climate change, financial crisis, G20, imf, trade, world bank, wto
When the latest efforts to close the Doha Round ended abruptly in December 2008, entrenched negotiating positions were a factor; but underlying systemic issues, ignored in many accounts of the stop-and-start history of the Round since 2001, were of greater significance: these include countries trading more but earning less; the dangers of premature deindustrialization; a growing technological divide and diminishing policy space. While addressing these systematic challenges will be key to the future stability of the multilateral trading system, the immediate threat to international trade comes from a deeply dysfunctional system of unregulated finance. Fixing that should be the urgent priority of the international community.
Tags: developing countries, G-20, governance, trade
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March 17, 2009 / climate change, financial crisis, G20, imf, trade, world bank, wto
The most critical challenge for global economic governance is to find effective and fair ways of mitigating and adapting to climate change whilst at the same time reducing global income inequalities and realizing the development aspirations and unrealized human potential of millions of people in developing countries. Recent evidence, for example on sea level rise and the shrinking summer ice in the Arctic Ocean, suggests that climate change is occurring even faster than models pronounced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have predicted. Biophysical feedback mechanisms, too often omitted from climate models, are likely to be a key factor in the underestimation and are likely to make climate change irreversible once critical atmospheric temperatures are passed. How fast we act will affect both the magnitude and reversibility of climate change. Some say 2015 will be too late; but even if they are wrong, the climate issue will certainly be at the top of the public agenda by then.
Tags: climate change, developing countries, financial crisis, G20, governance, trade
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February 2, 2009 / aid, financial crisis, imf, world bank
When the G20 meet in April the needs of African countries should be high on their agenda. The G20 have promised “comprehensively to reform the Bretton Woods institutions” . At least three major changes should be pushed.
Tags: Africa, financial crisis, G20, imf, ngaire woods, world bank
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January 4, 2009 / financial crisis, imf, trade, world bank, wto
When the WTO starts its work for 2009 this week, three items must be at the top of the agenda: debating the selection and mandate of the agency’s Director-General (Pascal Lamy’s current four-year term will expire this August); setting a date for a full Ministerial Conference this year in Geneva; and forging a forward-looking agenda for that meeting.
Tags: Deere, developing countries, Director General, Doha Round, financial crisis, Lamy, leadership, sustainable development, trade, wto
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Reforming the IMF and World Bank: Ngaire Woods
Comments OffNovember 19, 2008 / financial crisis, imf, world bankNgaire Woods addresses the urgent but difficult task of reforming the world’s international financial institutions in a report for the Progressive Governance Conference hosted by Gordon Browne in April 2008.
In the report, she writes that global cooperation among governments is urgently needed to manage the current financial crisis. In principle, the IMF and World Bank are ideally placed to play a key role. But in practice, neither institution is adequately equipped to ensure cooperation to deal with the current crisis. Put simply, neither institution has a governance structure which today commands the confidence of emerging economic powers whose cooperation is vital if global collective action is to resolve the financial crisis.
Tags: financial crisis, imf, ngaire woods, publications, world bank
