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Sunday, November 22, 2009 04:33 GMT

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G20: IMF Finds a New Unpopularity
By Pavol Stracansky
BRATISLAVA - When some Eastern European states faced economic collapse as the financial crisis took hold, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stepped in and offered governments huge loans.
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ECONOMY: "Put Africa on the G20 Agenda in Pittsburgh"
By Stephanie Nieuwoudt
CAPE TOWN - With South Africa being the only African country with a seat on the Group of 20 (G20), while serving as co-chair of the working group on reforming the International Monetary Fund, it has "a moral obligation towards the continent to call for more responsible management of the global financial system".
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LAOS: What People Cannot Eat is of Great Importance to Women - Part 2
By Donna Kelly*
VIENTIANE - "When I was born my mother could not eat anything but tiny fish and tea made from herbs for one whole year," says Dr Bhounsouane. "She was so weak that she could hardly walk. Post partum food taboos (phit kam) are a major problem in Laos for women," he said.
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LAOS: Land Legislation Disempowers Women - Part 1
By Donna Kelly*
VIENTIANE - Ki is seven years old but looks more like three. His legs are bowed and skull misshapen. He looked at me with a blank stare. The health worker, Kheo, suggests rickets.
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FINANCE: World Bank, NGOs Exhort G20 Not to Forget the Poorest
By Jim Lobe and Eli Clifton
WASHINGTON - The World Bank and major non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are calling on leaders who will gather for next week's Group of 20 (G20) Summit in Pittsburgh not to forget the needs of the world's poorest countries, which have been severely affected by the last year's financial crisis.
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Q&A: "Political Elites Ensure Continuing Flight of Dirty Money"
Hilaire Avril interviews RAYMOND BAKER, campaigner against corruption and money-laundering
PARIS - Illegal capital flight in the form of corrupt, criminal and illicit commercial proceeds out of developing economies could be as high as one trillion dollars a year.
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DEVELOPMENT: NGOs Question World Bank's Clean Energy Roadmap
By Mary Tharin
WASHINGTON - The World Bank's 2010 World Development Report (WDR), released Tuesday, calls on the developed world to lead global efforts to cut carbon emissions, but some civil society groups remain highly sceptical of the bank's role in brokering climate finance.
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ECONOMY: "Africa Is Paying Most for a Crisis Not of its Making"
By Stanley Kwenda
KINSHASA - The global economic crisis has hit the African continent especially hard despite not being involved in its making, civil society organisations gathered in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo heard at the fifth people’s summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
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AFRICA: "Have Your Own Policies, as Long as They’re Like Ours"
By Marina Penderis
JOHANNESBURG - The controversial conditionalities attached to World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans over the past 20 years may, from the World Bank’s point of view, no longer be necessary as African countries are of their own accord imposing similar policy restrictions on themselves.
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G20: Moving Up BRIC by BRIC
Analysis by Sanjay Suri
LONDON - Every one of these 'G' meetings becomes now an occasion for the developing countries - say the emerging economies - to turn that extra energy into a louder voice in the business of global decision-taking.
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DEVELOPMENT: Brazil, India, South Africa to Broaden "Voice of the South"
By Fabiana Frayssinet
RIO DE JANEIRO - The sixth ministerial meeting of the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) forum agreed Tuesday in Brasilia to strengthen the dialogue between the three emerging powers in order to establish common positions on regional and international matters and boost South-South cooperation.
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AFRICA: UNCTAD Recommends Privatisation to Mali
By Isolda Agazzi
GENEVA - How can an African country define its own policy without getting lost in dozens of treaties and international commitments and the jungle of studies prepared by foreign donors and so-called experts, compounded by policy interference by international financial institutions and governments in the North?
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CARIBBEAN: Returning to the IMF, on Their Own Terms
By Peter Richards
PORT OF SPAIN - In 1995, then Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson had a few choice words for the International Monetary Fund (IMF). "Goodbye, ta-ta, au revoir," he said.
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FINANCE: Africa Wants Greater Voice at IMF
By Nalisha Kalideen
JOHANNESBURG - Civil society in Kenya has urged the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for greater representation within its decision making boards and the formation of a dispute resolution body.
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FINANCE: Congress, Activists Push for Conditions on IMF Funding
By Danielle Kurtzleben and Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - Development groups and some U.S. lawmakers are urging the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama to use its power on the governing board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to make the global financial body more transparent, democratic and responsive to the needs of its poorest borrowers.
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G8: Politely, a Revolution Under Way
Analysis by Sanjay Suri
L'AQUILA, Italy - It is with too much ease that we all sometimes use the word 'revolution'. Because all too often the change being championed is one that too many others simply do not notice. But that isn't the case here: the change pushed for at the G8 summit in Italy, and at other such forums, is no less than revolutionary, and can only be seen as historic.
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They underpin the world's financial architecture, with the power to revamp whole economies and channel billions of development dollars each year. But the so-called International Financial Institutions -- the World Bank Group, International Monetary Fund and regional investment banks -- face a new era of public scrutiny and challenges to their relevancy.

How are the IFIs responding to growing demands from the South and civil society groups for greater democracy and accountability? And are they living up to their stated mission of promoting economic prosperity for all? IPS reports.