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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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Independent research & practical ideas for global prosperity
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 Posts:December 4, 2009Fixing World Bank Governance: Four StepsBy Nancy BirdsallThe report of a high-level commission chaired by former Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo and tasked with generating ideas and momentum for reforming the World Bank’s governance was published in October 2009. Johannes Linn summarizes the report well here (and then complains that its remit was too narrow). The report was launched at a CGD event which Lawrence Macdonald moderated (he critiqued World Bank president Robert Zoellick’s response to the report here). Read More… 1 Comment »April 6, 2009IMF Governance Reform Committee Report Leaves Much to the ImaginationBy Nancy BirdsallSuddenly the IMF is very much in the news. The G-20 Summit agreed last week to large increases in resources to enable the Fund to respond to the global crisis. And the week before the IMF Board approved radical changes in access, pricing and conditionality for IMF borrowers, making IMF loans and insurance (precautionary loans immensely more attractive for countries like Brazil and Mexico. Already Mexico has come forward to request access to the new Flexible Credit Line. The new lending rules show that the IMF bureaucracy is finally beginning to respond effectively to reality of responsible macro management in many emerging market economies. Read More… 3 Comments »March 20, 2009Why Don’t the Bretton Woods Sisters Offer Risk Insurance? (Could Governance Be Part of the Problem?)By Nancy BirdsallWhy have the IMF and the World Bank been so backward on risk management products — an issue Guillermo Perry explores in a forthcoming CGD book? What is it about their governance, mandate, instruments and/or human nature that leads them like horses to water to lending, even defensive lending, during good times, in effect inviting them, for lack of prior development of insurance and savings products, to “indulge” in a new round of lending in bad times? (Is it a coincidence that the same problem seems to plague microfinance initiatives — where, as David Roodman among others points out, credit eclipses savings and insurance programs by orders of magnitude?) Isn’t this asking countries to acquire more debt to build a new house to replace one that has burned down — when instead they should have had access to fire insurance? Isn’t it the lack of fire insurance that induces the self-insurance of reserve accumulation that has added to the global imbalance that is behind the current meltdown? Read More… 3 Comments »March 19, 2009Double Majorities at the World Bank and IMF: For Legitimacy and EffectivenessBy Nancy Birdsall
In their current form—as Western-dominated trans-Atlantic clubs—these institutions lack legitimacy and are thus handicapped in meeting the urgent and complex needs of the 21st century. President Obama should be prepared to argue—including to the possibly recalcitrant U.S. Congress—that outmoded institutions work for nobody, not even the American people. To regain legitimacy, the IMF and the World Bank must become truly global cooperatives in which the developing nations have much greater representation than they have now. By leading this overdue governance reform effort, the United States can reclaim its role as champion of an open and inclusive global economic system. Comment »March 17, 2009What Is Wrong at the IMF? The Europeans Dammit, and Development Community Confusion, TooBy Nancy BirdsallSimon Johnson has a terrific statement on why you and I are missing the boat on what’s wrong at the IMF and why we’re not paying enough attention. If you’re interested in reform of governance at the IMF and the World Bank, you’ll see why officialdom (in Europe) is not (now) on your side. Here are excerpts from Simon’s op-ed in the New Republic on-line, which he included in his Baseline Scenario post: 1 Comment »March 12, 2009Why a Bretton Woods Non-Commission?By Nancy BirdsallI am pleased to announce the launch of the CGD’s Bretton Woods Non-Commission on Governance Reform of the IMF and the World Bank. The possibility and the options for deep reform of these institutions are greater today than ever. Ironically, this is thanks to the oncoming global economic crisis, which has exposed the limits of their financing, legitimacy and relevance in the 21st century interconnected global economy. The IMF and the World Bank have both announced new commissions to offer recommendations on how they can reform their embarrassingly outmoded mid-twentieth century governance. Both are led by experienced and capable individuals, the IMF commission by Trevor Manuel and the World Bank commission by Ernesto Zedillo. The task of our Non-Commission is to help invigorate this process by providing fresh and perhaps even revolutionary ideas for changing how these important institutions are run—specifically who decides what they do and how they do it. Our Non-Commission will not meet; and our ideas will not be massaged into a consensus document. Comment »February 11, 2009Open Letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary-designate Geithner on IMF ReformBy Nancy BirdsallIn this January 2009 letter, I joined with 14 other signatories in writing to then U.S. Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner applauding his answers to the Senate Finance Committee about the Obama administration’s position on IMF reform and urging the Obama administration to revisit the IMF reforms submitted to Congress in November 2008 in advance of the meeting of G-20 heads of government in London on April 2. Comment » |
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Nancy Birdsall
Colin I. Bradford
Kemal Dervis
Jo Marie Griesgraber
Homi Kharas
Johannes Linn
Domenico Lombardi
Vijaya Ramachandran
Richard Samans
Edwin Truman
Ngaire Woods
