Recent Developments in IMF-CSO
Relations
Since the last issue of
the Civil Society Newsletter, Rodrigo
de Rato has taken up office as head of the IMF. The new Managing Director,
who previously served as Finance Minister of Spain, was appointed in May
after the resignation of Horst Köhler, who has since been elected
President of Germany. De Rato assumed his post on June 7, and immediately
set out to familiarize himself with the institution, and to meet with
leaders in member countries. This has involved a busy early travel schedule,
and de Rato initiated his contacts with civil society organizations (CSOs)
while overseas. Immediately after arriving in Washington, the Managing
Director visited Japan, China, Singapore, and Vietnam; in the last country
he held a meeting with international and domestic
NGOs, reported in this issue. In early August, he made his first trip
to Africa as head of the Fund, visiting Nigeria, Gabon, Uganda, and Kenya.
The visit involved wide-ranging exchanges of views related to the strategies
for promoting faster economic growth and poverty reduction in the region;
meetings with civil society organizations were held in each country. In
a speech to West African leaders in Gabon, de Rato said the Fund's African
Department is being restructured with more staff added, to ensure that
the institution is "a reliable partner for Africa." He added
that "a process of reflection is currently under way assessing the
IMF's work with its low-income members." In the weeks before the
October 2004 Annual Meetings, de Rato will continue reaching out to CSOs
worldwide.
Over the past few months, pressure has been increasing on the international
community to make good on its commitments to assist the poor countries-especially
in Africa-as they battle the scourge of HIV/AIDS. The IMF has welcomed
an emerging commitment by donors to provide more resources to combat the
disease; the Fund is working with recipient countries to help them make
the best possible use of the new resources. Over the next several years,
funding for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment is expected to rise dramatically.
But such rapid increases in external funding are not always an unmixed
blessing: they can pose serious challenges for countries seeking to absorb
the added resources effectively. If these challenges are not met, they
could not only compromise the expected benefits but also endanger longer-term
political support in donor countries. An interview in
this issue with a senior Fund staffer outlines many of the issues faced
by developing countries in using these resources. It also addresses-and
refutes-recent accusations that IMF-supported programs have restricted
individual countries' responses to the crisis.
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Feature Article
An interview with Peter Heller on financing
for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment
Peter Heller, Deputy Director of the Fiscal Affairs Department of
the IMF, is a long-standing expert on the economics of health care in
developing countries. A former member of the World Health Organization's
Commission for Macroeconomics and Health and a current member of the
Task Force on Poverty and Economic Growth of the UN Millennium Project,
Heller recently organized a meeting of IMF staff with representatives
of the international health community, bilateral donors, and NGOs on
how to manage the macroeconomic implications of the new flow of assistance
for programs focused on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment (see article
in the IMF Survey, p. 202). He spoke about the challenges involved,
at IMF Headquarters in Washington DC in July. Excerpts:
Q: Is there any legitimate criticism of the IMF in its
dealings with poor countries facing vast HIV/AIDS infection
rates?
A: I don't think so. There is certainly no IMF ceiling
that has prevented the employment of nurses in Kenya or Uganda
or elsewhere, as has been alleged by some. It is true that
in these countries we are supporting programs in which there
are ceilings on domestic bank borrowing by the government that
effectively limit the size of the government budget deficit.
Very occasionally, there are ceilings that affect total government
employment. But if governments say, "We can't employ people
in health care because the IMF is preventing us," that's
not really true. First, ceilings that may affect government
employment relate to total government employment. Governments
generally recognize that there are significant inefficiencies
and excesses in many ministries. Substitution of health workers
or teachers in place of administrators or clerks could, under
many circumstances, be a productive change. But we recognize
that this is not so simple for governments to do. And second,
if new resources do come in for HIV/AIDS, especially
in the form of grants, there is always scope for these ceilings
within Fund programs to be reconsidered. Supplementary budgets
can be passed that take account of new budgetary resources,
so these ceilings should not be a binding constraint preventing
employment for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. I should
also note that in some countries, the Fund has made explicit
provision for increasing the size of the civil service to accommodate
more teachers and health professionals.
Q: Still, the IMF does enforce spending limits.
A: Our core mandate is to help countries achieve and
maintain macroeconomic stability. That doesn't mean we're not
flexible. It does mean that we can't support a policy program
that implies a high rate of inflation. There are limits. My
understanding of recent research is that once inflation starts
rising above a certain level-and here economists are still
trying to understand whether that level is 5 percent or 10-11
percent-it becomes injurious to the prospects for real economic
growth. It's injurious to an environment in which business
can make decisions that promote growth. And it's injurious
to the welfare of the poorest members of society. The question
is how to do as much as possible without these macroeconomic
constraints starting to bite. We would be negligent if we just
ignored these kinds of issues, because we would end up weakening
growth and hurting the poor-precisely the people we all want
to help.
Q: When did new resources to support HIV/AIDS prevention
and treatment appear?
A: They are just starting to show up. The Global Fund
to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria has been making commitments
for roughly the past three years. But it's taken time for those
commitments to be translated into disbursements. That's even
more the case for President Bush's HIV/AIDS initiative, which
only this year is starting to make disbursements. The amounts
of disbursements could mount significantly next year-possibly
raising total government spending in the health sectors of
some countries by 30 percent to 50 percent to 75 percent, or
even much more.
Q: People who are not economists may have trouble understanding
why receiving a lot of money could create problems.
A: When a lot of money for HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention
pours into a country like Zambia or Malawi, there certainly
would be no adverse macroeconomic effects if the funds all
went to buy pills. The only question would be, are there sufficient
people on the ground to hand out these pills, and make sure
that they're handed out to the right people? But if only one-third
of the money comes in for pills, and the rest of it comes in
to buy the services of nurses, doctors, and community health
workers, then the question is, do you have the capacity to
expand the supply of skilled professionals in that sector?
If the answer is yes, then there should not be a significant
problem. But in many of these countries, you don't have that
capacity. It may take some time to develop training programs
to augment the supply. Until that happens, what could occur
is that the government starts bidding for the services of the
available people. Other parts of the public sector may demand
increased wages as well, arguing that "The nurses are
getting higher salaries; why shouldn't we?" And governments
may not be able to afford giving higher salaries to everybody.
Q: Do the potential problems go beyond pressure on wages?
A: Another issue concerns the dedication of substantial
external resources to work on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.
Does this match the priorities of the government? For example,
the new funding may allow the government to do a great job
on HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, but the government may
find itself with few resources for other critical elements
of the health sector-for instance, no one to staff health centers
for routine maternal-child health visits. Malaria is not going
away, tuberculosis is not going away, all the sources of child
mortality are not going away. It's not for us in the IMF to
judge what the relative priorities should be in the health
sector. But we know that governments do worry about
a disproportionate focus vis-à-vis other sectors such
as education, agriculture, water supply, and sanitation. Spending
in those areas might be powerfully productive in raising economic
growth and living standards.
Q: Some of the discussion on HIV/AIDS funding in poor countries
brings up the so-called "Dutch Disease." What does
this mean?
A: The term is used for a currency appreciation arising
from an inflow of external resources that adversely affects
export incentives and incomes of producers in the export sectors.
Let me give you a real-life example: Coffee farmers in Uganda
sell to a world market in which prices are quoted in dollars.
World coffee prices are slumping. The coffee farmers may be
poor to start with-coffee farmers are not rich in Uganda or
in many other countries. Uganda receives more foreign aid.
And this leads to more demand for non-traded goods-non-imports-including
workers' labor. So demand rises for the currency that pays
for these goods - the Uganda shilling. The shilling becomes
relatively more valuable relative to the dollar. What that
means is that the Ugandan selling his coffee for dollars gets
fewer shillings for each dollar he makes. Suddenly his income
is going down even more. And the international competitiveness
of all Ugandan products declines. So "Dutch Disease" refers
to a situation where a significant inflow of external resources
(whether for oil, remittances, or foreign assistance) leads
to an appreciation of the exchange rate that may adversely
affect the export sector.
Q: Given that scenario, can aid be a bad thing?
A: No. On balance, foreign assistance for low-income
countries is a good thing, and we recognize that most of the
literature indicates that aid facilitates growth. Although
the Dutch Disease is a concern to be aware of, we shouldn't
make too much of it, at least not at this point. Our perspective
in the IMF increasingly is: bring the money on, and if it really
starts posing important macroeconomic challenges then we will
work with governments to try to address these challenges in
a way supportive of growth and poverty reduction. For instance,
in middle-income countries, maybe you need to import Sri Lankan
or Filipino nurses if you don't have the local nurses on hand.
The important thing to emphasize is that if foreign assistance
can expand productive capacity, there should not be a significant
problem with the Dutch Disease effect over the longer term.
Certainly, HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention should be a very
supply-inducing kind of intervention. Suddenly people, who
hadn't been able to work, can work again. Children, who had
had to replace their parents in the fields, can go to school.
This is all for the good.
Q: Now that major funding has begun, how long will it continue?
A: Governments do face the question: can they count
on this money for long enough to feel comfortable hiring nurses
and doctors? Or do governments lack confidence that this money
will come in a year from now? If it doesn't, that could mean
a need to release the newly hired nurses and doctors. Given
the history of volatility of aid resources, predictability
is an enormous concern to countries, especially given the nature
of HIV/AIDS treatment. Once you've put someone on antiretrovirals,
you're putting them on, hopefully, for the rest of their lives.
It's not a situation in which you can put them on and say, "Oops,
we don't have them this year; we didn't get the money."
Q: What can be done to make aid funds flow steadily and
predictably?
A: At least two ideas are being discussed. Gordon Brown
[Chancellor of the Exchequer of the U.K. and Chairman of the
International Monetary and Financial Committee, the ministerial
body that provides twice-yearly guidance to the IMF] has proposed
an International Finance Facility, intended to provide the
financial resources for a larger and more reliable flow of
aid. Jeffrey Sachs [Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia
University] has been arguing that more money should be provided
to the World Bank through the coming International Development
Association replenishment to make possible larger long-term
commitments. There has been a tremendous effort by the IMF,
among others, to emphasize to donors the need for greater predictability
and stability in foreign assistance. The trouble is that parliaments
don't pass budgets for 10-year periods. Not surprisingly, donors
find it hard to promise assistance for more than a few years.
Q: Has the success in lowering the cost of antiretroviral
drugs helped to ease the problems of financing HIV/AIDS work?
A: Certainly. But we must not lose sight of the fact
that pharmaceuticals do not account for all costs. The lowest
cost that I have seen for generic antiretrovirals is about
$150 a year. But the total cost of treatment is about $450
a year, so the labor and systems cost is about $300 a year.
That is, the actual drug is only one-third of the cost of having
someone on antiretrovirals.
Q: Is the IMF involved in the debate over generic versus
brand-name pharmaceuticals?
A: It's not in our direct mandate, but we would support
initiatives for countries to be able to use generic drugs,
either that they produce themselves or buy from third-party
producers. Because they're cheaper, so a lot more people get
treated.
Q: Discussion of financing for HIV/AIDS prevention and
treatment in the developing world tends to focus largely
on Africa. Should the geographical boundaries be expanded?
A: AIDS is a terribly important issue for countries
including India and China. In India, even with far lower prevalence
rates, the number of people with HIV/AIDS may reach levels,
in the next decade, that are as large as any other country
in the world. But in terms of new money and resources coming
into those countries, it's not going to create potential macroeconomic
problems, so it isn't likely to significantly influence the
IMF's surveillance discussions with these countries. It would
of course concern us as an important underlying structural
problem affecting real growth rates, and creating demand for
health expenditure. There are a lot of poor people in those
countries, there is a big HIV/AIDS problem, and even larger
health sector problems. We would certainly approve of more
Official Development Assistance being channeled to countries
like China and India.
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Poverty Reduction:
IEO report: Poverty reduction strategy
has fallen short of its potential
The strategy that the IMF and the World Bank have followed for the past
five years to help fight poverty in low-income countries has fallen short
of its potential, the Fund's Independent
Evaluation Office has concluded.
That assessment of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) and Poverty
Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF) grew out of a detailed study based
on internal IMF documents, stakeholder surveys and country background
studies for Guinea, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Mozambique, Tajikistan, and Tanzania.
The World Bank's Operations Evaluation Department joined in some of the
research.
In launching the PRSP and PRGF in 1999, the IMF and the World Bank aimed
to promote country ownership of anti-poverty programs. The papers defining
growth-oriented, poverty-fighting strategies would be written by the countries
themselves. Lending and debt-relief programs of the IMF and World Bank
would grow out of these strategies. The PRGF-under which the IMF makes
loans to poverty-plagued nations-was designed to make "pro-poor" growth
the centerpiece of IMF-supported programs.
The evaluation did find some improvements in lending programs. Anti-poverty
spending has increased, although questions remain about how "pro-poor" was
some of this spending. Programs show greater fiscal flexibility to accommodate
higher aid flows. And the IMF-backed programs require fewer structural
conditions.
Nevertheless, these improvements do not add up to the envisioned sweeping
creation of country-owned strategies, the evaluators said. A major reason
for the gap between expectations and results is that incentives focus
on producing documents, the evaluation said. Also, benchmarks that measure
actual progress are scarce. And little attention is given to differences
between countries. Another deficiency is that the PRSP process has not
met the goal of fostering debate in poor countries that extends beyond
elite circles to the broad populace, including the poor themselves.
Recommendations addressed to countries and to the IMF/World Bank for
upgrading the PRSP/PRGF process include:
- The setting of benchmarks in each country; these would be
open to public scrutiny.
- Preparation of clear, candid assessments of progress in
each country by IMF and World Bank staff.
- Development of IMF tasks and priorities tailored to each
country's circumstances, as opposed to uniform standards for
IMF work in all low-income countries.
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Vatican conference on poverty and globalization
The call to reduce the debt burden of poor countries is being sounded
again, as concern mounts that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
may be beyond reach of the poorest countries. While greater assistance
for many countries is clearly needed, the suggested strategy for fighting
poverty faces major practical obstacles, a senior IMF official told a
Vatican conference in July.
"On the political front, the constraints to funding debt relief
have been severe and the generosity of some of the major creditor countries
has been limited, not least because of the weak constituencies for foreign
assistance in some of the larger countries," Jack Boorman, consultant
and advisor to IMF management, said at a seminar organized by the Pontifical
Council for Justice and Peace in Vatican City.
The one-day meeting, "Poverty and Globalization: Financing for Development,
including the Millennium Development Goals," took place on July 9.
Other participants included Gordon Brown, U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer,
and chairman of the International Monetary and Financial Committee, along
with representatives of the UN and Catholic NGOs, as well as senior members
of the church hierarchy. Representatives of Civil Society Organizations
from countries in the global South, including Argentina and Zambia, spoke
as well.
Brown lent a note of urgency to the proceedings, depicting prospects
for the MDGs as poor under present conditions. Hope for the Goals, he
said, lies in adoption of the proposed International Finance Facility
(IFF), which is designed to provide up to $50 billion a year in new development
assistance between now and 2015 through the proceeds of bond issues to
be repaid by donor countries. Brown also called for greater debt relief
for the poorest countries, especially their debt to multilateral organizations.
Jean-Pierre Landau, a director of the European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development and a former Executive Director of the IMF from France,
said that France supports the IFF. But he laid out other ideas tentatively
proposed by a French presidential committee assigned to devise ways of
creating new aid resources. These include taxes on armaments, on carbon
emission, and on international currency transactions. The last is the
so-called "Tobin tax," proposed by Nobel laureate economist
James Tobin of Yale University. Supporters of the proposed tax estimate
that it could bring in revenues of $100 billion-$300 billion a year.
For all of the discussion of ideas to expand the supply of aid funds
aimed at the poorest countries, debt relief - including proposed 100 percent
write-offs - was the theme most consistently sounded.
In his remarks, Boorman said that debt relief should be viewed in the
context of all aid channeled to poor countries. Seen in that light, canceling
debt is only one way to direct more funds into social service programs
in poor countries, and may not be the most effective way. More financing
from donor countries and multilateral lenders is clearly needed to increase
the total amount of resources available to fight poverty and to help the
poorer countries meet or at least approach the MDGs. But access to new
lending by donor countries can be jeopardized by debt relief. When donors
grant debt relief, they sometimes compensate by making fewer new aid funds
available, Boorman said. From donors' perspective, the step is logical,
because both debt relief and new financing draw on national budgets. Boorman
also urged the wealthier countries to consider raising the amount of aid
they give in the form of grants, as opposed to loans, thereby protecting
countries from seeing their debt loads reach unsustainable levels.
Debt relief may be appropriate in some cases in which debt has already
reached unsustainable levels, Boorman acknowledged. But widespread debt
cancellation raises two other issues apart from the risk to new lending.
One is that some level of obligation may be necessary for the creation
or strengthening of a "credit culture," Boorman argued. The
second issue is one of equitable treatment. Some poor countries would
not be eligible for debt relief because they have managed their finances
and debt obligations prudently. Paradoxically, this would penalize them
vis-à-vis countries that benefit from a debt write-off.
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Civil Society-IMF Dialogue:
IMF/World Bank dialogue with World Council
of Churches moves ahead
On May 7, IMF and World Bank staff participated in a meeting with representatives
of the World Council of Churches (WCC) at its headquarters in Geneva.
It was the fourth in a series of meetings that was initiated in 2002 by
correspondence between Konrad Raiser, then General Secretary of the WCC,
and former IMF Managing Director Horst Köhler and World Bank President
James Wolfensohn. The purposes of the meeting were to review progress
in the discussions thus far, and to plan for a possible meeting between
the heads of the organizations.
The review of discussions (see Civil
Society Newsletter, February 2004) between the Bretton Woods Institutions
(BWIs) and the WCC was based partly on two papers distributed at the
meeting, one written by WCC representatives, and one prepared by Graham
Hacche, Deputy Director of the IMF's External Relations Department,
which attempted to clarify areas of agreement and isolate areas of disagreement
between the WCC and the BWIs. WCC representatives said that their three
main areas of interest for further discussion with the BWIs, including
at the planned high-level meeting, are: how to eradicate poverty; justice
and human rights; and the "democratization" of the BWIs. The
Bank's Katherine Marshall, Director and Counsellor to the President
on Values and Ethics, referred to the WCC's apparent underestimation
of the importance of the MDGs to the work of the BWIs, and also stated
that the Bank's position on human rights was evolving, as were the BWIs'
policies on debt reduction and restructuring.
With regard to the planned "high-level meeting", the three
parties discussed possible venues, and format. One of the outcomes of
such a meeting sought by the WCC would be a public statement of common
concerns and objectives. The IMF pointed to the need for more work, whether
before or after the high-level meeting, to clarify common ground and divergences
of view. As the previous October 2003 meeting in Washington had come to
the conclusion that case studies needed to be undertaken to reach greater
clarity, participants suggested using the findings of a case study on
Honduras, currently being conducted by the German churches, and, at the
suggestion of the Bank and Fund representatives, one on Tanzania.
Plans for the case studies, a possible subsequent staff meeting to discuss
them, and the high-level meeting, will evolve in the coming weeks.
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Letters from the Field:
Managing Director de Rato meets with Vietnamese
NGOs
Susan Adams, Senior Resident Representative, Vietnam
During his visit to Hanoi on June 26, 2004, Managing Director Rodrigo
de Rato requested a special meeting with local and international NGOs
in Vietnam. He met later that day with representatives from five NGOs
(two local and three international). He briefed them on the relations
between Vietnam and the IMF; and asked about the particular challenges
faced by civil society in Vietnam, and how the IMF could strengthen its
partnership with civil society in the country.
The NGO representatives covered a variety of issues, including: the growing
problem of HIV/AIDS; the rollout of the Poverty Reduction and Growth Strategy
of Vietnam to the local/grassroots level; the challenges of developing
local human resource capacity; and the linkages between monetary policy
and microfinancing.
The Managing Director noted especially the NGOs' concern about the spread
of HIV/AIDS and the authorities' cautious response, particularly on the
importation of low-cost antiretroviral drugs. The NGOs attributed
this cautious stance to concerns that the importation of such medicines
at this time might jeopardize Vietnam's negotiations to join the World
Trade Organization (WTO). In that regard, de Rato pointed out that new
WTO rules now provided legal options for poor countries to import low-cost
medicines from third countries to deal with public health problems such
as HIV/AIDS. If those rules were not clear, however, they should be clarified,
and the Fund should be an advocate for poor countries in that regard.
Later in the week, the IMF Hanoi Office followed up on this discussion
by attending a conference on the trade and legal aspects of the HIV/AIDS
problem in Vietnam.
Vietnam was de Rato's last stop on a week-long tour to Asia in late June,
which took him also to Japan, China, and Singapore. This was also his
first official travel as Managing Director of the IMF.
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A letter from Quito
David Yuravlivker, Resident Representative, Ecuador
In April, I participated in a meeting sponsored by UNDP to evaluate past
dialogue between the government and civil society in Ecuador. The motivation
was the government's plan to launch a new round of consultations with
civil society on a poverty reduction strategy. There were about 35 attending,
including indigenous movements, women's groups, academics, journalists,
former high government officials, and local government representatives.
Among the lessons drawn were the following:
- There is no single methodology that fits all types of
dialogue. A lot of thought and preparation are
needed to bring about a fruitful dialogue.
- To achieve results, it helps to focus on a small number
of well-defined issues and to enlist the support of well-chosen
facilitators. In 1998, some 25-30 leaders from various
sectors and political groups met in closed, intensive periodic
retreats to discuss solutions to the Ecuador-Peru conflict
(the Cousin dialogue). Two former presidents from the region
were the facilitators. The meeting reached a consensus to
support the peace process, which led to the 1998 peace agreement,
signed by presidents Mahuad and Fujimori.
- Developing a culture of dialogue builds social capital
and has value in and of itself. The national dialogue
organized by the indigenous movement in 2003, at the start
of the current administration, contributed to developing
a culture of seeking consensus through dialogue. However,
for proposals to materialize there is often a need to overcome
limitations in the operations of public sector systems and
to ensure continuous commitment from the highest levels of
government.
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A field trip to Haute Guinée
Dennis Jones, Resident Representative, Guinea
My field trip to Haute Guinée with AFRICARE gave me first-hand
insight into the development needs of some of the isolated parts of Guinea.
For a visitor, first there is the problem of access. The trip takes nine
hours by road from Conakry (the last 100 km on wholly unpaved roads),
and villages have no true road access. The rains did not cause us too
many problems going, but on the return trip, the heavens opened, and three
hours were added to the journey. Second, communication by other means
is virtually nonexistent-there has been no phone service since 2002. And
many conveniences that we take for granted, such as electricity and water,
can also be absent or difficult to obtain outside the main town.
We found many other problems that affect the lives of people in such
remote areas. In that context, it was good to see a number of projects
bearing results in terms of agricultural production (new crops, new techniques,
longer and more stable production cycles); grain storage, food transformation
(soy milk, dried vegetables, oils and creams from nuts); nutrition (nutrition
plans, well digging and maintenance, and water treatment); health education
(for mothers and infants mainly, but also wider education on sexually
transmitted diseases and HIV/AIDS awareness); and literacy programs. Many
of the projects focus on empowering local groups, with the aid of field
coordinators, which often results in strong women's groups that are motivated
and appear to moving toward self-sustainability. As income-generating
activities develop, greater awareness and use of financial systems become
evident, mainly through established micro-finance institutions such as
Crédit Rural. These groups seem to be working well, with the local
authorities giving visible support, and also assistance from other agencies.
The three villages we visited were of significantly different sizes (one
about 100 inhabitants, another of some 800, and the last about 2000),
and had had AFRICARE involvement for different periods, which has allowed
some assessment of how the projects and the communities can develop. The
range of problems to be tackled has moved from mainly questions of availability
of basic resources toward matters of internal administration and how to
take charge when AFRICARE's direct involvement phases out. This indicates
that progress is being made, but highlights the importance of ensuring
that clear systems of accountability and for measuring continuing progress
(e.g. financial record keeping and health indicators) are put in place.
For more information on AFRICARE, please visit: http://www.usaid.gov/gn/nrm/news/030411_foodforpeace/africareindinguiraye.htm.
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Bulletin Board
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notification system.
Other recent meetings between IMF staff and CSOs
- On May 12, the Nicaragua mission team, headed by mission
chief Philip Young, met with Nicaraguan and British NGOs at
IMF headquarters in Washington to discuss the country's economic
progress on issues such as external debt, taxation, and the
budget.
- On June 3, Global Witness, a U.K.-based NGO that works
on the issue of extractive industries transparency, met with
Menachem Katz, Assistant Director of the IMF's African Department,
Bill Allan and Günther Taube, Section Chief and Senior
Economist respectively, Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD), and
Anton Op de Beke, Senior Economist in the Policy Development
and Review Department (PDR). They also attended a meeting with
IMF staff and other Washington-based NGOs. Global Witness asked
IMF staff to adopt best practice by individual country teams
and Fund departments into the Fund's overall policy and to
make revenue transparency a condition of all IMF lending and
technical assistance programs.
- Klaus Enders, Assistant Director of the IMF Offices in Europe,
participated in a panel discussion on "Does the HIPC Initiative
Reach the Poor?" at the bi-annual Katholikentag,
the German Catholics' Conference, June 17-18 in Ulm, Germany.
Other panelists included representatives from NGOs, faith-based
organizations, and the German Development Ministry.
- On June 21, Peter Heller, FAD's Deputy Director, met with
U.K.-based NGOs in London to discuss general issues associated
with the Fund's role in low-income countries and more specifically
on aid absorption for HIV/AIDS. He also met separately
three members of a Parliamentary committee working to strengthen
the U.K.'s response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa.
- On July 22-23, Jean-Pierre Chauffour, IMF Representative
to the WTO, who also liaises with the Geneva-based UN agencies,
attended the UN-Social Forum on Human Rights and Poverty,
an initiative of the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and
Protection of Human Rights. This second round of the Social
Forum focused on the contribution of human rights approaches
to the fight against poverty at the national and international
levels. It was organized around four panels, of which two were
of more direct relevance to the Fund: (1) poverty and human
rights: empowerment of people living in poverty; and (2) the
role of human rights in the development of operational strategies
to address poverty. The proposed rights-based approach, as
some participants highlighted, resonates with many features
of existing poverty reduction strategies (PRSs) supported by
the Bretton Woods Institutions.
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Upcoming events
- The 2004
Annual Meetings of the World Bank and the International
Monetary Fund and related meetings and events will be held
in Washington, D.C. on October 2-3, 2004. As always, a number
of policy dialogue sessions for interested CSO representatives
will be organized before and during the Meetings. CSO representatives,
like all other visitors, must apply for accreditation in
order to gain access to the Annual Meetings venues and related
events. For the 2004 Annual Meetings CSOs can request accreditation
through a new web-based accreditation system at: https://www.imf.org/external/am/2004/csoreg/reg.asp.
The system was launched on July 1 and applications for accreditation
from interested CSOs will be accepted through September 3.
If you are interested in participating in the Annual Meetings,
please apply for accreditation as soon as possible, and immediately
proceed to obtain a visa to enter the U.S., if necessary.
More information on the accreditation process can be found
at: http://www.worldbank.org/civilsociety/.
Back to Table of Contents
Inside the IMF
- The Fund formally set up a dedicated PSIA
group in July, 2004 (see Civil
Society Newsletter May 2004). This initiative is the
most recent example of the Fund's recognition of the need
for a more systematic approach to integrating poverty and
the social impact of policies into the design of PRGF-supported
programs. The group is situated at the Fiscal Affairs Department
of the Fund, within the Expenditure Policy Division, and
will be made up of four experts. Two experts joined as of
July 1. David Coady, who previously worked at the International
Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in Washington, has
extensive experience in the analysis of tax reform, social
expenditures, and program evaluation. Prior to joining IFPRI,
Coady was an academic at both University and Queen Mary Colleges
in London. Moataz El-Said, who also worked previously at
IFPRI, has extensive experience in the application of quantitative
techniques to policy issues such as trade and price liberalization
and their implications for poverty reduction efforts. The
remaining staff is expected to join in the coming months.
- Montek Singh Ahluwalia,
Director of the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO)
since it was set up in 2001, resigned in June to become Deputy
Chairman of India's Planning Commission (the Chairman being
the Prime Minister). IMF Management and the Executive Board
congratulated him on his appointment and expressed their appreciation
for his work at the IEO. Ahluwalia also received much feedback
from CSOs who said they were saddened by the news of his departure
and expressed their respect for the integrity and professionalism
he brought to the IEO. David Goldsbrough, the IEO's Deputy
Director, will serve as Acting Director until a successor is
found.
Back to Table of Contents
Selected speeches
- Opening Remarks
by Mr. Agustín Carstens, Deputy Managing Director,
at the Third Regional Conference on Central America, San
Pedro Sula, Honduras, July 8, 2004
- The IMF at
60: Equipped for Today's Challenges? Address to the American
Academy, by Anne O. Krueger, First Deputy Managing Director,
Berlin, June 23, 2004
- Trade, Jobs
and Growth: Why You Can't Have One Without the Others,
address by Anne O. Krueger, First Deputy Managing Director,
Reuters Trade, Globalization and Outsourcing Conference,
New York City, June 15, 2004
- The IMF at
60-Evolving Challenges, Evolving Role, opening remarks
by Rodrigo de Rato y Figaredo, Managing Director, at the
Conference on "Dollars, Debts and Deficits-60 Years
After Bretton Woods", Madrid, Spain, June 14, 2004
- Economic
Growth in a Shrinking World: The IMF and Globalization,
address by Anne O. Krueger, Acting Managing Director, to
the Pacific Council on International Policy, San Diego, June
2, 2004
- Address
to the World Trade Organization General Council, by Anne
O. Krueger, Acting Managing Director, Geneva, May 18, 2004
Back to Table of Contents
Selected publications
- Educating
Children in Poor Countries, by Arye L. Hillman, Eva Jenkner,
Economic Issues No. 33
- The End
of Textiles Quotas: A Case Study of the Impact on Bangladesh,
Montfort P. Mlachila, Yongzheng Yang, Policy Development
and Review Department, Working Paper No. 04/108
- Debt
Accumulation in the CIS-7 Countries: Bad Luck, Bad Policies,
or Bad Advice, by Thomas F. Helbling, Ratna Sahay, Ashoka
Mody, Research Department, Working Paper No. 04/93
- Does
Financial Globalization Induce Better Macroeconomic Policies? By
Irina Tytell, Shang-Jin Wei, Research Department, Working
Paper No. 04/84
- The IMF
and the Force of History: Ten Events and Ten Ideas that Have
Shaped the Institution, by James M. Boughton, Policy
Development and Review Department, Working Paper No. 04/75
- How Has
NAFTA Affected the Mexican Economy? Review and Evidence,
by Guy M. Meredith, Western Hemisphere Department, Ayhan
Kose, Christopher M Towe, Research Department, Working Paper
No. 04/59
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