Tracking the fight to head the Fund
23 May 2011
Dear Governors
Appointment of IMF Managing Director
Because of the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn as IMF Managing Director, we are writing to urge you to push for the selection of the best candidate through an open, merit-based, transparent process, and the public support of the majority of the IMF membership, including developing countries.
Continue reading “Open letter to all Governors of the International Monetary Fund”
Media statement, 23 May 2011
With the announcement of a process to select a new managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a global coalition of 105 campaigners have written an open letter to the Fund’s Board of Governors asking that they choose a candidate who has the backing of the majority of IMF member countries, through an open, merit-based process.
The campaigners, including the Bretton Woods Project, Oxfam, and ActionAid, urged the IMF to break with past practice and “ensure the selection of the best candidate with the legitimacy gained from the support of the wider IMF membership, not just a powerful minority of countries”.
With the resignation of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, a global coalition of campaigners has called for an open and merit-based process to elect the next IMF head.
The early departure of Strauss-Kahn means the 187 member governments of the IMF will have to select a new managing director during a time of grave economic uncertainty. It also reopens the debate over an anachronistic and unfair selection process.
The campaigners, including the Bretton Woods Project, Oxfam, and the Third World Network, are calling for an end to the have end to the “gentlemen’s agreement” between Europe and the US, which ensures that the IMF Managing Director is always a European, and the President of the World Bank an American.
Continue reading “Campaigners demand fair selection process after Strauss-Kahn resigns”
Jayati Ghosh in The Guardian,
In appearing to veto Gordon Brown’s chances of becoming the next head of the International Monetary Fund, David Cameron says the organisation needs someone who “understands the dangers of excessive debt, excessive deficit”. But if that is all the new person understands, then he or she will make little difference to an institution badly in need of real reform.
More here
From the Jamaica Observer
The US chose to have in perpetuity the presidency of the World Bank, the better to complement and promote their direct foreign investment in developing countries. They have consistently selected Wall Street investment bankers with little knowledge of economic development and less empathy.
Full article here
IMF Boss 