Guy Ryder, General Secretary of the ITUC (center), at their meeting with the MD on January 16.
The IMF and Civil Society
Conversations with Civil Society
May 5, 2009
The IMF has held a series of meetings with a variety of civil society organizations (CSOs) since October 2008.
April 28: Representatives from Jubilee USA Network, ActionAid International USA and New Rules for Global Finance met with staff from the IMF’s External Relations (EXR), Finance (FIN) and Strategy Policy and Review (SPR) Departments to discuss how to mobilize resources for low-income countries.
April 27: Staff from the Middle East and Central Asia Department (MCD) met with a representative of the Pakistan group Community Motivation & Development Organization to discuss Pakistan’s IMF-supported program.
April 24: MCD staff working on Morocco met with representatives from the Moroccan Confederation Democratique du Travail and Bank Information Center (BIC) to talk about the IMF’s relations with Morocco.
April 20: Staff from the IMF Legal Department met with Global Witness representatives from London and Washington to discuss their recent report “Undue diligence: How banks do business with corrupt regimes.”
April 17: IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn met with a group of Washington, London and Malawi-based CSOs to talk about the process for the "fourth pillar" of civil society input into the IMF governance reform process.
April 14: Staff from the Asia and Pacific Department (APD) met with representatives from HELP Advocates about the economic and human rights situation in Sri Lanka.
April 13: Representatives from ActionAid International USA and New Rules for Global Finance met with EXR, FIN and SPR staff to talk about the G20 outcome.
April 1: IMF’s Strauss-Kahn met in London with 54 union leaders under the auspices of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) ahead of the April 2 G20 summit.
March 31: EXR Director Caroline Atkinson met with staff from the ONE Campaign ahead of the G20 summit.
March 26: SPR’s Christian Mumssen participated in a roundtable, organized by the World Bank, on the financial crises. He presented the IMF’s analysis of the impact of the financial crisis on low-income countries.
March 25: SPR staff briefed via conference call CSOs from Africa, Europe and the U.S. on IMF facilities reform, both for emerging market and low-income countries.
March 23: Global Witness representatives from London and Washington met with IMF staff from SPR, Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) and the Office of Technical Assistance Management (OTM) to talk about resource revenue transparency.
March 19: APD staff met with representatives from Human Rights Watch about the Economic and Human rights situation in Sri Lanka.
March 11: IMF staff from EXR, Secretary’s Department and SPR met informally with a group of civil society organizations to discuss IMF governance reform and civil society input into the reform process.
March 6: Staff from the African Department (AFR) and SPR met with staff from Oxfam America and ISODEC Ghana to discuss oil production in Ghana.
March 4: A group of civil society representatives from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and representatives from the BIC and Revenue Watch Institute met with staff from the IMF’s Monetary and Capital Markets Department (MCM) to talk about the Fund’s work on Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs), in particular its involvement in the International Working Group on SWFs, and the impact of the financial crisis on SWFs.
February 25: Emmanuel van der Mensbrugghe of the IMF office in Paris participated in a Geneva meeting of the World Council of Churches “Alternative Globalisation Addressing People and Earth” Reference Group on Poverty, Wealth and Ecology and delivered a presentation on the global financial crisis and the role of the IMF.
February 5: A New Rules for Global Finance representative met with AFR, FAD, SPR and Research Department staff to discuss poverty impact assessments.
January 23: In a conference call, SPR’s Christian Mumssen briefed CSOs from Africa, Europe, and the U.S. on plans for the upcoming review of the lending role and facilities for low-income countries.
Jan. 13–15: About 100 trade unions leaders participated in high-level meetings between the ITUC, the IMF and World Bank Group. Unions leaders met with Managing Director Strauss-Kahn, the IMF Executive Board, and IMF and World Bank staff to discuss the food and fuel crisis and the financial crisis, and issues such as climate change, pension reform, and labor standards in World Bank operations.
December 11: EXR’s Jennifer Bisping participated in a Conference on Non-Governmental Diplomacy, organized by InterAction, Coordination SUD, the Embassy of France in the U.S. and Georgetown University.
December 10: AFR’s Andrew Berg participated in a panel discussion on "Macroeconomic policies that work for health & education: Do IMF spending policies need to be changed?” organized by ActionAid International USA.
December 10: Felix Fischer, IMF Resident Representative in Mozambique, participated in the All Africa Conference of Churches 9th General Assembly in Maputo and gave a presentation on the role of IMF in sub-Saharan Africa at a the session on the theme “From political liberation to economic liberation.”
November 26-December 2: A high-level IMF delegation, led by IMF Deputy Managing Director Murilo Portugal, attended the Conference on Financing for Development in Doha, participating in many side events with CSOs. EXR’s Jennifer Bisping attended the Civil Society Forum preceding the main conference.
November 25: SPR staff held a conference call with CSOs on the review of the Policy Support Instrument. The PSI was created to support low-income countries that no longer need or want Fund financial assistance, but still seek Fund endorsement and assessment of their policies.
November 6: Akira Ariyoshi, Director of the IMF’s Office for Asia and the Pacific participated in the ITUC Asia Pacific regional dialogue session in Bangkok with the international financial institutions on the topic of “growing inequality and policy options for a fair globalization.”