International Monetary Fund (IMF) and NGOs

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an intergovernmental body that plays a key role in the global financial system through its concern with stabilizing international exchange rates and other aspects of global monetary cooperation. The IMF works to secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and facilitate development through temporary financial assistance to nations, thus easing the balance of payments.

With 186 Member States (as of July 2009), the IMF is composed of most of the Member States that are also part of the United Nations, with the notable exceptions of Taiwan, North Korea, Cuba, Andorra, Monaco, Liechtenstein, Tuvalu, and Nauru. When the IMF was created in July 1944 together with the World Bank, it originally had 45 Member States, which contributed to a pool that could be borrowed from on a short-term basis by countries with payment imbalances, helping to stabilize the global economic system. The five largest current shareholders are the United States, Japan, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.

The supreme governing body of the IMF is the Board of Governors with the Executive Board having many of the executive powers not assumed by the Board of Governors, including the day-to-day work of the body. The International Monetary and Finance Committee and the Development Committee are two key committees.

Relationship with NGOs

NGOs are not accorded any special mention or recognition in the 1944 Articles of Agreement of the International Monetary Fund, the constituent instrument in the formation of the IMF. There is an Article (X) titled “Relations with Other International Organizations,” but this does not refer to NGOs but just to “general” and “public” international organizations.

Nonetheless, although not called for in its constituent instrument, the IMF does maintain some relationship with NGOs. The IMF considers NGOs as part of civil society (voluntary associations of citizens) as one of several types of civil society organizations (CSOs), the other CSOs including business forums, faith-based associations, labor movements, think tanks, and philanthropic foundations. In the IMF terminology, CSOs do not include political parties, parliamentarians, individual businesses, or mass media.

The advocacy of NGOs concerned with economic and social justice lead to the IMFs active engagement with civil society in the 1980s. In the latter half of the 1990s, NGOs opposed to the IMF policies increased IMF-NGO relations. Notably, the role of the IMF has been controversial since the end of the Cold War, with critics claiming the IMF is apathetic or even hostile to their views of democracy, human rights, and labor rights, and supportive of military dictatorships friendly to American and European corporations. This has lead to some conflict between NGOs and the IMF and thus greater efforts on the part of the IMF in fostering dialogue. However, the IMF-NGO relations still remain modest, and much less than at the United Nations and the World Bank. In general, the IMF holds the position that it is accountable to the governments of its Member States, not to the public at large.

Avenues for NGO Involvement with the IMF

The IMF lacks the institutional apparatus and accreditation policies for relating to NGOs as is found in many other bodies, such as the United Nations; consultations occur on an ad hoc basis. There are, however, engagements with NGOs through the sharing of information and dialogue, largely at the IMF headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Nonetheless, the main organs of the IMF are not open to NGO participation. These closed bodies include the meeting of the Executive Board, the International Monetary and Finance Committee, and the joint IMF-World Bank Development Committee. The Board of Governors, which meets once a year at the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings, does allows ad hoc accredited NGOs to attend and observe, without further participatory rights.

Among avenues in which NGOs are consulted by the IMF are the Annual and Spring Meetings; ad hoc meetings, briefings, seminars, workshops, and conferences; invitations extended by the IMF to review its policies, and so forth.

The IMF’s External Relations Department helps in coordinating relations with NGOs, and relevant departments also handle contacts with the backing of the External Relations Department.

References

This section utilized as a main source S. Rapinsky and P. van den Bossche. 2007. NGO Involvement in International Organizations: A Legal Analysis. London: British Institute of International and Comparative Law.