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From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

From Poverty to Power Green, Oxfam 2008 - weman

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FROM POVERTY TO POWERbecome more prominent. But <strong>to</strong> remain both relevant and useful, theIFIs must assert their independence from their larger shareholdersand place themselves at the service of their cus<strong>to</strong>mers.Where effective states are able <strong>to</strong> insist on sensible policies, ratherthan succumb <strong>to</strong> pressures <strong>to</strong> follow Washing<strong>to</strong>n Consensusblueprints, the Fund and Bank could play a positive supporting role:• The World Bank could strengthen its support for ‘globalpublic goods’, such as technological advances in health oragriculture, where it should work with UN bodies and otherelements of the international system. In these areas, nationalgovernments or individual companies may not have sufficientincentives <strong>to</strong> invest, since the benefits (or harm) accrue <strong>to</strong>everyone rather than just <strong>to</strong> their own country or firm.Although the Bank is moving in<strong>to</strong> these areas, <strong>to</strong> date it hasdone so in an ad hoc and chaotic fashion, setting up some70 separate trust funds for work on different issues, with littleoverall sense of direction or priority. 22• The Bank and the Fund could isolate policy advice andresearch from lending. The institutions’ policy advice ishugely influential but is akin <strong>to</strong> ‘tied aid’, in that it comesattached <strong>to</strong> loans and financial dependence. 23 Research andpolicy advice could be required <strong>to</strong> stand on their own meritsby giving developing-country governments ‘technicalassistance vouchers’ that they could cash in with the mostsuitable provider, whether the World Bank, another UN body,or a university. Another idea would be <strong>to</strong> split up the Bank’spolicy department, move the parts <strong>to</strong> various developingcountries, and require them <strong>to</strong> compete for business.• The Fund should concentrate much more on moni<strong>to</strong>ring thenational economic policies of those systemically importantcountries that could threaten global financial stability, eventhough the developed countries have in recent decadesremained sublimely indifferent <strong>to</strong> IMF criticism. 24• To get real reform under way, donor governments should s<strong>to</strong>pmaking their own aid conditional on countries having a Fundor Bank programme in place. Giving the IFIs such exaggeratedinfluence as ‘gatekeepers’ is neither warranted by their past304

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