The IMF and World Bank in the 21st Century:The IMF and World Bank in the 21st Century: The Need for Change

by David Woodward

9 May 2005

The current international financial system, as it affects developing countries, is based heavily on the IMF and the World Bank. Their roles have been inseparable since their inception at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 - and have become still more closely linked since the Bank’s introduction of structural adjustment lending in 1979 and the Fund’s introduction of the Structural Adjustment Facility in 1986. This makes it difficult to consider proposals for one in isolation from the other.

In view of the commonality of other important aspects - such as governance structures - between the two institutions, this note therefore considers both...

David Woodward
New Economics Foundation, London.

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