Source:
Bank Information Center
Wed Mar 26 2008
A group of 17 civil society organizations representing 10 countries and several international groups have sent the following letter to the IMF calling for a consultations framework to be put in place, premised on the timely disclosure of information. The letter highlights the unacceptably secretive manner in which the IMF has pursued the reform of its governance structure, as well as the lack of any substantive documentation on the Fund's internal restructuring processes.
Dear Mr. Strauss-Kahn,
The IMF is undergoing a significant process of reform and restructuring. As part of this process, civil society from both developed and developing countries strongly request that that you give due consideration to the vital areas of accountability and transparency. Next year, the Fund will undertake a review of its Transparency Policy, and we believe the process of initiating the necessary changes should start now.
Currently, NGOs from both the north and the south are concerned about the lack of an explicit consultations framework—premised on the automatic disclosure of information—for the Fund’s operations and processes. Such a consultations framework is imperative if there is to be informed participation by external stakeholders in national economic decision-making processes, and if citizens are to be able to hold their governments accountable. Both of these are essential for developing countries to have genuine ownership over their own economic policies, a commitment that was made by the G8 at the Gleneagles Summit in 2005. Additionally, these steps are necessary if the Fund is to redress the critique in the IEO’s 2007 review of IMF operations in Sub-Saharan Africa that described the IMF’s engagement with country-based civil society as "limited and ineffective".
We are deeply concerned that the absence of a framework that defines how the IMF will meaningfully engage with external stakeholders—through providing both information on relevant issues and opportunities to make public input—undermines the Fund’s legitimacy, accountability, and operational effectiveness.
Although the IMF has made some progress in this area through its Transparency Policy, the current policy does not contain key elements necessary to ensure the full exercise of the public’s right to know and right to participate in decision-making. The right to access information held by public bodies, including inter-governmental organizations such as the IMF, is a fundamental and legally-binding human right, grounded in the right to "seek, receive and impart information and ideas", guaranteed under international law (1). It has become an international norm for public institutions, and the IMF is lagging behind its sister institutions, such as the World Bank.
The closed process of the five working groups and ten task forces announced in the IMF’s Interim Work Program, published on December 14, 2007, demonstrates why the IMF needs to dramatically improve the way it communicates with its external stakeholders. The Fund’s ongoing reforms and restructuring are processes with serious implications for Fund stakeholders, yet there has been no mention of publicly disclosing the output of the working groups or openly consulting on the reforms proposed. Again, the discussions on a new voting formula have been highly secretive, without disclosure of relevant documents, or opportunities for stakeholders to meaningfully engage with IMF staff or the board on critical changes made to Fund governance.
We therefore call on you to take the following steps:
* Begin a process to define a framework for public consultations which includes the automatic disclosure of documents in a timely fashion. Such a framework should apply to all, or most, of the IMF’s operations and processes, ranging from country-based negotiations on surveillance; technical assistance, and/or loans; staff policy design; reviews of policies and programs; institution-wide reforms, and Executive Board decision-making. In addition, IMF officials should also encourage countries’ governments to seriously involve external stakeholders, including civil society, in these processes and socialize pertinent information about IMF agreements, policies and surveillance.
* As a first step toward a framework for informed public consultations, the IMF should publish the final reports of the five working groups in the Interim Work Program, scheduled to conclude by the Spring Meetings in 2008.
Consultations should occur within countries where external stakeholders have expressed interest in consultations, as well as in Washington, D.C. IMF Mission Teams that visit countries to review loan agreements or conduct annual surveillance must participate in explicit and open consultations with a wide range of external stakeholders, not just with the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank. Stakeholders should include other relevant government ministries (including health and education among other ministries), independent economists and academic specialists, national civil society and labor unions.
Such a framework, if designed and carried out effectively, would set a significant precedent for genuine transparency and external stakeholder involvement.
We look forward to hearing from you on this important matter, as well as to engaging with the Fund on the development of such a consultation framework.
Sincerely, on behalf of:
- Action Aid International
- African Network on Debt and Development, Zimbabwe
- BanglaPraxis, Bangladesh
- Bank Information Center, U.S.
- Bretton Woods Project, U.K.
- Center of Concern, U.S.
- European Network on Debt and Development
- Global Transparency Initiative
- Institute for Democracy in South Africa, South Africa
- Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection/Jubilee-Zambia, Zambia
- Latin American Network on Debt, Development and Rights
- New Rules for Global Finance Coalition, U.S.
- Oxfam International
- Social Watch, Uruguay
- Third World Institute, Uruguay
- Uganda Coalition for Sustainable Development, Uganda
- Voices for Interactive Choice & Empowerment, Bangladesh
(1) This right is guaranteed in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN General Assembly Resolution 217A(III), 10 December 1948, widely viewed as legally binding as customary international law. It is also guaranteed at Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by UN General Assembly Resolution 2200A (XXI), 16 December 1966, entered into force 3 January 1976.
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