As the Bretton Woods institutions enter their sixtieth year, they face a number of challenges. Some are the result of changes that have occurred in the world economy while others are the outcome of their approaches to the problems of stabilization and development, and of their own governance structure. ‘The IMF and the World Bank at Sixty’ presents a selection of essays prepared for the Group of Twenty-Four Developing Nations (G24), by some of the foremost authorities in their fields, which address these challenges and suggest the need for reform in several areas. Ariel Buira’s introduction presents a critical overview of the functioning of the IMF and the international monetary system, underscoring a number of shortcomings that could be remedied to make it more supportive of development through changes in governance. The other essays focus on two areas: financial issues, particularly the prevention of financial crises; and secondly, the policies of the Bretton Woods institutions. These essays have onefundamental aim: to improve the functioning of the global economy and to better enable the developing countries to share in the gains in prosperity of recent decades.

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. His publications include ‘The IMF and the World Bank at Sixty’ (Anthem Press, 2005) and ‘Challenges to the World Bank and IMF: Developing Country Perspectives’ (Anthem Press, 2003).

List of Contributors; Foreword; 1. Introduction; 2. The IMF at Sixty: An Unfulfilled Potential?; 3. Conditionality and Its Alternatives; 4. Mission Creep, Mission Push and Discretion: The Case of IMF Conditionality; 5. Up From Sin: A Portfolio Approach to Salvation; 6. Trip Wires and Speed Bumps: Managing Financial Risks and Reducing the Potential for Financial Crises in Developing Economies; 7. A Fiscal Insurance Scheme for the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union; 8. Who Pays fot the World Bank?; 9. Reinventing Industrial Strategy: The Role of Government Policy in Building Industrial Competitiveness; 10. Assessing the Risks in the Private Provision of Essential Services; 11. How Well Do Measurements of an Enabling Domestic Environment for Development Stand Up?; 12. The Cocoa Market Under Neoliberalism; Index