The International Response to the Global Crisis and the Reform of the International Financial and Aid Architecture
People in developing countries are suffering disproportionately from this global financial crisis, and international institutions have a long way to go to ensure the financing and mechanisms of assistance that can address this development emergency, writes Professor Ngaire Woods in a policy briefing commissioned by the European Parliament. In many developing countries, what is being crushed and reversed is hard-won progress towards reducing poverty, hunger, and child mortality, and towards increasing primary education, gender parity, access to safe water and sanitation – in short, progress towards the Millennium Development Goals. In this policy briefing, Woods evaluates the responses to the crisis by the IMF, World Bank, G20, and the European Union, and provides a series of recommendations for strengthening the international financial and aid architecture so that it can better respond to the urgent needs of developing countries in deep crisis.