- Ökologie - Heinrich Böll Stiftung

Development Policy

Introduction

Debatting on the Bretton Woods Institutions & the World in Crisis

The world came upon a big economic crisis in the last few months of 2008. Initially, many experts thought this was going to be a regional crisis that would impact only the financial markets, but the crisis quickly assumed global proportions with regions like Europe and the Far East becoming seriously impacted.

The world, however, is also at the threshold of an ecological crisis. The global climate change, worsening draughts, the food crunch, and natural disasters furnish us with scientific evidence that the earth cannot sustain another development effort like the one in the post-1929 era.

The International Money Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, the so-called Bretton Woods Organizations, that had been established in order to prevent global crises have again assumed considerable importance under the circumstances of the present global crisis for at least three reasons. The first reason is that a crisis environment offers the chance for a reconsideration of the global roles of these organizations. The second is that many countries had to make a deal with the IMF as happened during the last few months. Finally, the policies the World Bank is going to implement in the times ahead will be of crucial importance since they will influence the course of the ecological and the economic crises in particular.

Both of these organizations have to face a number of key questions that are on everyone’s agenda due to the current crisis, for example the relationship between the causes of the economic crisis and the neoliberal policies; state-market and state-development relationships or the requirement for a more holistic approach to the relationship between the ecological crisis and the economic/social crises.

On the occassion of the economical and fiscal developments during the last year, the Annual Meeting of the World Bank and the IMF in İstanbul seems to be a good platform to contribute on discussing the main tenets of the HBS, according to the financial and monetary sector and to offer alternatives to current structures.

Reasons of the economic depression, ecological crisis, climate change, unemployment, poverty, the roles of international institutions, crisis and war, crisis and gender etc. will be some topics, which will be debated at different kind of sideevents, running by the foreign offices of the Heinrich Böll Stiftung in İstanbul aswell as the one of Washington, during the 2nd and 5th of October 2009.

Here you will find the programme from the HBS aktivities in PDF

Please check the following links for further information.

Critical Debate on WB & IMF

Conference

Facing Current Challenges in Istanbul on the 3rd October 2009

İstanbul Bilgi University’s Graduate Program on International Political Economy and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Turkey Representation will attempt to contribute to the search for alternatives by addressing such issues as the causes of the economic crisis, the ecological crisis, unemployment, poverty, and the roles of the international organizations with an international conference on the 3 Oktober 2009 more»

IMF - WB and Crisis in the World: Critical Voices

Forum

Voices of Civil Society Organisations

Several NGO’s are going to organise the Forum "IMF-WB and Crisis in the World: Critical Voices" on 2-4-5 October 2009 at Istanbul Bilgi University Dolapdere Campus with the contribution of Heinrich Böll Stiftung and Istanbul Bilgi University. Additional to various sessions, film screenings and concerts will be part of the programme more»

IMF - WB & the World in Crisis

Die Weltbank in der Klimafinanzierung - IWF und Weltbank als Retter in der Not?

2. Oktober 2009 - Weltklimarat und IWF kommen unabhängig voneinander zu einem ähnlichen Schluss: Von der Klimakrise wie auch der globalen Wirtschafts- und Finanzkrise sind am härtesten die ärmsten Staaten und die ärmsten Bevölkerungsgruppen betroffen. Von Barbara Unmüβig mehr»

Zwischen Finanzmarktreform und Klimapolitik

- 2. Oktober 2009 - Zwischen Finanzmarktreform und Klimapolitik - Von Barbara Unmüßig mehr»

Catalyzing Low Carbon Development? SMITA NAKHOODA, World Resources Instıtute

- This working papersummarizes key innovations and challenges associated with the Clean Technology Fund. It analyzes the first set of clean technology investment plans from Egypt, Mexico, and Turkey, and takes the case for greater emphasis on institutional capacity and governance in measuring program results more»

‘Climate Smart’ World Within Reach, says World Bank

- Developing countries can shift to lower-carbon paths while promoting development and reducing poverty, but this depends on financial and technical assistance from high-income countries, says a new World Bank report released today more»

Chomsky: Understanding the Crisis - Markets, the State and Hypocrisy

- Noam Chomsky is a noted linguist, author, and foreign policy expert. Sameer Dossani
interviewed him about the global economic crisis and its roots. His first interview
with Chomsky can be found more»

Daniel Brodlow: "Fixing the IMF"

- The leaders of the G20 will meet on April 2 in London. One item on their agenda will be to consider enhancing the International Monetary Fund's role in international financial governance. This can only be successfully achieved if the IMF undergoes substantial reforms that require either difficult political compromises or amendments to the Fund's Articles of Agreement, the formal international treaty that created the IMF and that has only been amended three times since the organization's inception in 1946 more»

IATP AG HBS: "Opportunities to integrate solutions to water, agriculture and climate crisis in global processes"

- There is an interrelationsship between the crises of climate, food and water, whereas can be seen as the mediated component of all three harms. Building on this assumption, it can be claimed that there is an essential need for redesigning the agriculture sector. What policies and practices are needed to ensure food security for all, to help individuals realize their “right to food” and ”right to water,” in a climate challenged world? More»

Gender Action Link: "Gender, IFIs and Extractive Industries"

- Women and girls, who are living in communities affected by extractive projects bear the brunt of environmental, social and economic impacts. Women for example mostly face livelihood loss, increased carework, forced prostitution and human traffiking, rape and sexually transmitted diseases due to the presence of extractive industries in their communities more»

Gender and Climate Finance: Double mainstreaming for sustainable development

- There can not be any fair and equitable global climate agreement, if there will not be a comprehensive global climate financing understanding, And the latter can only have a fair, equitable and comprehensive character, if it includes and incorporates gender awareness and strives toward gender equitable climate financing solutions more»

"IMF Voting Shares: No Plans for Significant Changes" Mark Weisbrot and Jake Johnston

- Looking at the structure of the IMF governance it seems that it is much more a reflection of the world of 1944, when it was established, than of the world today. A hugh mismatch between the ′Northern countries′ and the mid- and low- income countries, with a dominant position of the USA according to the decision-making process, can stil be seen more»

A.Erinç Yeldan: "Turkey and the Long Decade with The IMF: 1998-2008"

- Turkey′s post-crisis adjustments under the AKP administration traces the steps of many developing countries, which are dependent on foreign capital and are conditioned to adopt or maintain contradictonary policies. In order to secure ″investor confidence″ and ″international creditworthiness″, Turkey maintained high real rates of interest in anticipation of increased foreign capital inflow into the domestic economy more»

Korinna Horta: ‘Rights and Development- What Progress at the World´s largest Aid Agency?’

- Today, the debate and advocacy about human rights has spread beyond its initial confines to numerious fields of action, though it´s unclear to which extent this change in attitude will impact governments an institutions, such as the World Bank. Looking at the institution of the World Bank today, it can be said,that most of its commitments to human rights has been largely rhetorical so far more»

Actionaid: "Where does it hurt? The impact of the financial crisis on developing countries"

- Especially developing and low- and middle-income countries respectively are hit by the financial crisis in a heavy way, although they mostly did not play a vital role according to the dynamic processes which led to this situation.'The crisis' actually implies two components: a financial an a recession one. Not the fiscial system is hitting these countries in a harsh way, but the lack of trade with the high income countries more»

Rania Antonopoulos: "The Current Economic and Financial Crisis: A Gender Perspective"

- History shows that financial crisis have been distinctly harsh on women and poor. Especially when it comes to instability of jobs, women are hit harder than men, which is mostly connected with the sectors female workers are employed, aswell related with political inequity women in most societies still have to deal with. Summary of “The Current Economic and Financial Crisis: A Gender Perspective” by Rania Antonopoulos, March 20, 2009 more»

Mark Weisbrot, Jose Cordero, Luis Sandoval:"Empowering the IMF: Should Reform be a Requirement for Increasing the Fund’s Resources?"

- In the last major set of economic crisis in 1990s the IMF made some serious mistakes that adversely affected the economies of many countries. Instead of acting as a lender of last resort, when it was most urgently needed, the Fund imposed procyclical policies and in (some cases) set unrealistic inflation targets that would be impossible to achieve, given the currency depreciation, without a severe economic contradiction more»

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