News Archives » imf
IMF Gold Sale Profits Benefit the World’s Poor October 1st, 2012
Jubilee USA Supporters Picket the IMF
The International Monetary Fund Executive Board has approved the final 2.7 billion dollars from recent gold sale profits to support the world’s poorest. The total gold sales windfall has now reached nearly 4 billion dollars to benefit the most vulnerable. One of the most powerful institutions in the world decided the right way because ordinary people cared – and acted.
At first, the IMF barely acknowledged the profit and assumed it could remain in their general reserves. Word leaked out about possible major renovations of the IMF office space in Washington, DC.
In response, Jubilee USA, of which the Oblates are a member, delivered tens of thousands of petitions and organized 60 global partners to push the IMF towards debt relief. At the end of February 2012, the IMF Board made a decision on the first distribution of 1.1 billion dollars after Jubilee, the ONE Campaign, ActionAid and Oxfam International met with the IMF staff.
These efforts pushed the IMF to approve the first 1.1 billion dollar distribution AND the second 2.7 billion dollar distribution to support concessional lending in the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust (PRGT) and extend a 0% interest rate that will make this trust available for future generations beyond 2014. While many of us have concerns about IMF lending, this 0% extension on existing loans will mean real relief for millions of people and translate into direct support for low-income countries.
For more information about Jubilee USA, please visit their website – and get involved! Go to: www.jubileeusa.org
IMF Loan Changed to a Grant January 20th, 2010
Under pressure, the IMF has changed its US$100 million loan to a grant. Dominique Strauss Kahn, the head of the IMF, has called for a major multilateral aid plan to rebuild the shattered Caribbean island of Haiti where the rescuers are still struggling to save lives after last week’s devastating earthquake.
Click here to read more »
Civil Society Organizations Engage IMF on Governance Reform September 29th, 2009
On September 8, 2009, representatives from civil society organizations (CSOs) met with the IMF Executive Board in an informal seminar at Fund Headquarters to discuss CSO recommendations on IMF governance reform. New Rules for Global Finance is coordinating the consultations, known as the Fourth Pillar Process. The Missionary Oblates, an active member of New Rules, was represented at the meeting by Seamus Finn, OMI.
The IMF just published an article about the consultation which is available in English, French and Spanish:
Oblate JPIC Urges IMF Loan to Sri Lanka be Conditioned on Tangible Human Rights Progress July 24th, 2009
In a letter to the US Executive Director to the International Monetary Fund, Meg Lundsager, the US Oblate JPIC office today urged that the US$2.5 billion stand-by loan be conditioned on tangible human rights progress by the Sri Lankan government. The loan was opposed by the UK government.
Some 280,000 Tamils are still being held involuntarily in over-crowded and severely under-serviced military-controlled camps in the north. In addition, the government has made no attempts to address the serious and legitimate underlying grievances of the Tamil population that led to the insurgency in the first place.
Read the full text of the letter.
Demand for a Globally Negotiated and Increased SDR Funding Without Conditionalities June 3rd, 2009
Stop increased funding to the IMF which only makes it a stronger enforcer of developed country restrictions through conditionalities.
NGOs Oppose Nearly 100-Billion-Dollar Pledge to IMF
WASHINGTON, May 31 (IPS) – A broad coalition of civil society groups, as well as some U.S. lawmakers, are fighting what they call a “blank cheque” from the U.S. to expand funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
On May 22, the Senate passed a 91.3 billion-dollar-wartime spending bill that included 108 billion dollars for the Washington-based Fund. The bill will now have to be reconciled in a conference committee between the Senate and the House of Representatives whose own version omitted any IMF funding. The funding was the U.S. part of a larger package agreed by the G20 leaders at their April meeting in London, where they pledged to provide 1.1 trillion dollars in additional funding to the IMF.
Click here to read more »
