This week’s IMF and World Bank Spring Meetings kicked off celebrations marking 80 years since they were created at the Bretton Woods Conference. But instead of moving with the times, the lack of outcomes this week demonstrate just how outdated and ill-equipped these institutions are, making them unable to address the complex realities of the 21st century.
Instead of addressing their structural problems, they have reaffirmed the same failed recipes.
The initiative is called ‘Donor Revolt’. You can find it on www.donorrevolt.com
Americans are a generous people, donating billions of dollars every year to sustain a vibrant independent nonprofit sector. But as wealth has concentrated in fewer hands over the last forty years, philanthropy has become less democratic. Giving by low- and middle-income donors has declined while the ultra-wealthy have come to dominate philanthropy in America. The result has been less money getting to the causes that desperately need it.
Why does this happen? Because wealthy donors are more likely to give through intermediaries like private foundations, which are required to pay out just 5% of their assets each year, and donor-advised funds (DAFs), which have no payout requirements. This stifles the flow of funds to charities on the ground, preventing them from delivering their unique good.
www.donorrevolt.com
- New figures published today by the OECD show that hosting refugees in donor countries accounts for more than US$31 billion (equivalent to 13.8 per cent of total ODA)
- Despite a small rise in ODA across all wealthy countries in 2023, in the EU aid fell by a shocking 7.7 per cent, with only a few members reporting increases
EU governments are losing out on a staggering 286.5 billion euros in revenue annually, equivalent to 33 million euros per hour, due to their failure to fairly tax Europe’s wealthiest. This amount, equivalent to Finland’s GDP, represents what a European wealth tax of up to 5 percent could raise every year, according to Oxfam’s analysis.
Civil society organisations addressed the World Bank and the IMF at their spring meetings in order to promote social security world wide
2024-SpringMeetings-IMF-WBG-EDs-Letter-SS.pdf (socialprotectionfloorscoalition.org)
The World Bank has exaggerated probable gains from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to promote partial and uneven trade liberalisation that is unlikely to enhance development on the continent.
Platform work is often presented as a stepping-stone for migrant workers. It may not however feel so benign to them.
Migrant labour in the ‘gig’ economy: progress or trap? (socialeurope.eu)
The World Bank Group promotes a model of social protection
via poverty-targeted programmes that are error-strewn and can
cause social unease, and set back progress towards universal
social protection. But a global coalition, led by borrowing govern
ments themselves, is fighting back. This briefing is based on Mat
thew’s book, Beyond the World Bank: The Fight for Universal Social
Protection in the Global South, which explores the Bank’s approach
to social protection.
WBG-Social-protection-Mathew-Greenslade-FINAL-web.pdf (brettonwoodsproject.org)
ITUC: Time for democratisation of global institutions
The ITUC calls for a major democratic reform of the international financial architecture as a key demand in its For Democracy campaign, as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank hold their spring meetings.
Inequality was traditionally the central concern of economists—until it wasn’t. It may be time to re-read the classics.
Exactly what Branco Milanovic did!
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