The IMF and Civil Society
Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn with Oxfam Great Britain Director Barbara Stocking on September 22 in IMF Headquarters.
Conversations with Civil Society
October 20, 2008
The IMF has held a series of meetings with a variety of civil society organizations (CSOs) since April 2008.
October 8: Staff from various Fund departments participated in a meeting, organized by Global Witness and Bank Information Center (BIC), to discuss the groups' recent report: "Assessment of World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund Extractive Industries Transparency Implementation."
September 29: Roger Nord and Tom Krueger of the IMF African Department (AFR) met with representatives from Physicians for Human Rights and ActionAid International USA to discuss fiscal space for health expenditures in Kenya and Uganda.
September 23-25: Vasuki Shastry, Chief of Public Affairs in the External Relations Department (EXR), participated in civil society events on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session and the high-level event on the Millennium Development Goals.
September 22-23: Barbara Stocking, Director of Oxfam Great Britain met with IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn to review the Fund's work in low-income countries and related issues. She also met with Antoinette Sayeh and Reza Moghadam, the new Directors of the African, and Strategy, Policy and Review Departments (SPR), respectively, as well as other senior staff.
September 16: Participants at an IMF reform initiative of the Washington-based New Rules for Global Finance, the Toronto-based Centre for International Governance Innovation, and Oxford University's Global Economic Governance Programme presented the findings of the initiative's final report, “Bringing Balance to the IMF Reform Debate,” to IMF Executive Directors. While noting the Fund's continued relevance to its membership, the report called for the Fund to reform its policy requirements, surveillance reports, governance structure, and accountability.
September 1-5: EXR's Tilla McAntony participated in a two-day meeting of UN System civil society liaison officers in Paris, France. Participants included Oxfam International, Transparency International, Coordination Sud, and the West African network of farmers ROPPA. McAntony also attended the UN DPI/NGO conference on Human Rights later that week.
September 1-4: IMF staff from AFR, EXR, SPR and the Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) met with civil society groups on the sidelines of the High-Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Accra, Ghana. SPR's Elliott Harris and EXR's Jenny Bisping also attended the Civil Society Parallel Conference on Aid Effectiveness prior to the High-Level Forum.
August 31-September 1: An AFR, EXR, and SPR delegation accompanied IMF Deputy Managing Director Murilo Portugal on a visit to Togo. Portugal met with local CSOs and presented a donation to the St. Claire Children's Home of Tokoin. The full delegation also participated in day-long IMF seminar for Togolese parliamentarians.
July 21: SPR's Anton Op de Beke attended a CSO session in New York on how to expand the concept behind the Extractive Industry's Transparency Initiative (EITI).
July 15: AFR, EXR, FAD, and SPR staff met with a delegation from affiliates of Results from Canada, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. to talk about IMF's work in low-income countries, in particular its role in advising countries on issues related to aid inflows and IMF governance reform.
June 17: SPR and Western Hemisphere Department staff met with representatives from Grupo Propuesta Ciudadana (Peru) and Oxfam America to discuss the EITI process in Peru.
June 17: FAD and EXR staff met with representatives from WaterAid to discuss the group's recent research on decentralized finance.
June 13-16: On a visit to Europe, EXR's Vasuki Shastry held meetings with various organizations including the London-based Bretton Woods Project and the Geneva-based World Council of Churches.
June 11: AFR's Christian Mumssen participated in a seminar on IMF conditionality as part of the Danida Development Days, held in Copenhagen, Denmark. Among the panelists was a representative of the European umbrella group Eurodad.
June 2: Staff from EXR, SPR and the Legal and Secretary's Departments participated in a videoconference with One World Trust (OWT) to talk about IMF transparency and accountability. OWT briefed IMF staff on its recommendations for the IMF as presented in the 2006 Global Accountability Report and IMF staff updated OWT on IMF governance reforms.
May 22-23: Along with representatives from international organizations and CSOs, Pierre Ewenczyk of the IMF Office in Paris participated in the Bridge Initiative International Annual Plenary. Among other topics, the meeting discussed the food security crisis, global warming, and the international financial system.
April 24 and 28: FAD's Michael Keen and Natalia Tamirisa of the IMF Research Department presented the IMF's recent work on the macroeconomics and fiscal implications of climate change in seminars at Chatham House (London) and the Center for European Policy Studies (CEPS, Brussels).
In addition bilateral meetings were held on country-specific and policy-related issues with CSOs such as New Rules for Global Finance, Oxfam, Global Witness, Australian Council for International Development, BIC, Eurodad, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), and Bridge Initiative International.