This challenging and unique new volume examines some of the most burning issues on the economic agenda in the world today. Bringing together some of the foremost authorities in their fields, this book is the result of work carried out on behalf of the G24, the world’s only research effort devoting to furthering the interests of developing countries and bringing their needs to global attention. The book gives a voice to the developing nations of the world through its powerful essays and its fresh perspective. Challenging the existing mechanisms for the governance of the world economy, the chapters in this book consider the current approaches of the World Bank and IMF, and the operations of financial markets, and offer alternative proposals for the effective participation of developing countries. In doing so, the volume ranges from discussions on reforming the IMF and its conditionality, debt workouts and restructuring, through management of capital flows, debt sustainability and insurance against crisis, to Millennium Development Goals and the ‘global partnership development’.

Ariel Buira is Director of the G24 Secretariat. He has been Special Envoy of the President of Mexico for the UN Conference on Financing for Development, Ambassador of Mexico, Member of the Board of Governors of the Bank of Mexico and Executive Director of the IMF.

Contributors to this Volume; Foreword; Introduction; 1. The Governance of the IMF in a Global Economy; 2. Who pays for the IMF?; 3. An Analysis of IMF Conditionality; 4. Achieving Long-Term Debt Sustainability in Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs); 5. The Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper Approach: Good Marketing or Good Policy?; 6. Capital Management Techniques in Developing Countries; 7. International Reserves to Short-Term External Debt as an Indicator of External Vulnerability: The Experience of Mexico and Other Emerging Economics; 8. Mechanisms for Dialogue and Debt-Crisis Workout that Can Strengthen Sovereign Lending to Developing Countries; 9. Developing a Global Partnership for Development; 10. International Public Goods: Operational Implications for the World Bank; Index

‘Nowhere is the voice of the developing nations expressed as cogently and powerfully as in these fresh and controversial essays.’ —Dani Rodrik, Professor of International Political Economy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

‘Incisive and powerful… “Challenges to the World Bank and IMF” is a unique book, providing the reader with a collection of highly professional papers from the perspective of developing countries, covering their economic problems and their relations with International Financial Institutions.’ —Claudio M. Loser, Inter-American Dialogue

‘This is a very refreshing and thorough critique of today’s development orthodoxy represented by the World Bank and the IMF. The combination of iconoclastic perspectives and detailed knowledge of the subject matter makes it particularly powerful.’ —Ha-Joon Chang, Director of Development Studies, University of Cambridge