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From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

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5 THE INTERNATIONAL SYSTEM FINANCEprogrammes typically provide improved access for rich-countryinves<strong>to</strong>rs and exporters.Their choice of economic frameworks: There are many other possibleresponses <strong>to</strong> sluggish growth and inflation, but the orthodoxapproach is overwhelmingly dominant, with more heterodoxeconomists facing hostility and criticism.The institutional pressures of bureaucracy: As in any institution,staff concern for career and salary leads <strong>to</strong> a high level of conformityand conservatism. If you follow the standard recipe and things gowrong, it is the institution’s fault; if you try something different and itdoesn’t work, the buck s<strong>to</strong>ps with you. 20As the Bank and Fund try <strong>to</strong> reconcile political pressure, publicdisenchantment, and the fierce academic debates over their policies,doubts and confusion abound over their future roles. Large developingcountries such as the BRIC group of Brazil, Russia, India, andChina no longer depend on the Fund for sources of capital (althoughthey engage with the Bank for both loans and policy advice on issuessuch as climate change). Latin America and East Asia have sought <strong>to</strong>build regional alternatives. Venezuela and Argentina have proposed a‘Bank of the South’, which would initially fund regional infrastructureprojects such as oil and gas pipelines, but could take on a more overarchingrole. And at a meeting of ASEAN+3 finance ministers inKyo<strong>to</strong> in 2007, the countries of East Asia agreed <strong>to</strong> press ahead with an$80bn regional currency swap arrangement that looks remarkablylike an Asian Monetary Fund.While the Bank has proved more agile in finding new roles foritself, for example through its enormous output of research andpolicy advice, the Fund seems particularly becalmed. George Schultz,treasury secretary under US President Gerald Ford, put it this way:‘If it disappeared <strong>to</strong>morrow, I don’t think people would miss it verymuch.’ 21 Schultz’s statement could perhaps be more usefullyrephrased as a question: ‘In <strong>to</strong>day’s world, if the IFIs did not exist,would it be necessary <strong>to</strong> create them?’ The answer <strong>to</strong> that is far fromclear. Multilateral approaches that manage <strong>to</strong> avoid excessive controlby the major powers provide a source of loans and technical andpolicy advice that governments find useful. Some parts of the WorldBank family, such as the regional development banks, may need <strong>to</strong>303

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