DEMOCRACY
AND DEVELOPMENT: PROPOSALS FOR IMF AND
WORLD BANK GOVERNANCE REFORM. September 5, 2003.
10
a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
The
World Bank's "J"
Building, 701 18th Street, NW
(Entrance from 18th St.), Room JB1-075
For
questions please contact Aldo Caliari at aldo@coc.org
To
register please email your name and affiliation to Karolina Ordon at kordon@worldbank.org
The United
Nation's Financing for Development Conference (FfD) held in Monterrey in March
of 2002 served to reinvigorate the policy debates on global economic governance.
Governments from around the world came together in a consensus agreement to
"broaden and strengthen the
participation of developing countries … in international economic
decision-making and norm-setting."
The coming
September, at the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF, policy makers
at those institutions will consider a background paper on options for reform of
the governance structure. This issue will also be on the agenda of the UN
General Assembly when it meets in October of this year.
This
discussion follows years of work by civil society organization who have been
demanding the democratization of the global institutions that govern it.
They have argued that repairing the shortcomings in global economic
governance, which is at the heart of asymmetries and imbalances in the global
economic system, will go a long way towards improving the conditions for raising
living standards in the developing world.
In leading
up the September and October meetings and policy discussion, this conference
will address the key question posed by the reform of governance.
What are the problems with the current voting structure? What are some
alternative models that could be followed in a reform? Are there more effective
ways to represent the stakeholders at the Executive Board? How should the heads
of the institutions be elected? What is the relationship between the Bretton
Woods Institutions and the UN?
Please
join us for a panel discussion where policy-makers from developed and developing
countries and civil society participants will address these and other questions
involved on reforming the governance structures of these institutions.
AGENDA
Part 1: Opening remarks by representatives of
civil society to present their perspective on some of the issues that need to be
addressed by a meaningful governance reform agenda. Issues include: reform of
the voting structure, system of representation at the Board, selection of
leadership, relationship between the Bretton Woods institutions and the UN.
Introduction:
Manfred
Bardeleben, Friedrich Ebert Foundation
Speakers:
Nancy Birdsall, Center for Global
Development and Jo Marie
Griesgraber, New Rules for Global Finance
Part
2: Policy makers and representatives from developed and
developing countries will provide their perspective on the current policy debate
and discuss the prospects for reform.
Moderator:
John Sewell, New Rules for Global
Finance
Speakers:
Mr. John Snow, U.S. Department of Treasury
(invited)
Mr. Eckhard Deutscher,
World Bank Executive
Director, Germany
Mr. Ariel Buira, Group of
24, Secretariat
Mr. Guillermo Le Fort,
IMF Executive Director,
Chile
Mr. Felix Mbayu, Minister Counsellor, Permanent
Mission of Cameroon to the United Nations (invited)
Mr. Henri Raubenheimer, Counsellor, Permanent
Mission of South Africa to the United Nations (invited)
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