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The vital role bestowed on international finance institutions in development is why the Agenda 2030 is far off-track at its midpoint. This is no surprise to the rural peoples, especially from the Global South, afflicted by the neoliberal programs and policies these institutions have perpetrated.
When the global food crisis hit the world last year, the IMF-WB Group blamed the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war for disrupting the global value chains and weakening the global economy. They, of course, responded with more neoliberal dictates.
The IMF promoted policies to improve social safety nets to support vulnerable households, to foster open trade policies, to support food production and distribution through enhancing trade financing and supply chains plus addressing logistical constraints and infrastructure gaps, and to leverage private sector initiatives to make agriculture more climate resilient. It also set up a 12-month Food Shock Window under its emergency financing instruments in September 2022.
On the other hand, the World Bank delivered more than USD 30 billion in loans and grants in response to the food insecurity crisis. Financing is systematized through the Global Alliance for Food Security, where the WB serves as the secretariat, and Food Security Crisis Preparedness Plans that are being rolled out in 26 countries.
With the worsening global economy and climate catastrophe, reforming the international financial architecture – where these Bretton Woods institutions are significant players – is being discussed to keep up with today’s pressing times. The US, the largest shareholder of both institutions, intends to keep the leading role of the IMF-WB in the reforms. Though this failed to make it in the UN SDG Summit’s political declaration, the IMF and WB remain indispensable institutions in accelerating the SDGs in the next seven years.
Regarding the upcoming annual meeting, the IMF and the WB are underscoring their greater collaboration on climate action, debt restructuring, and digital transition. There is also a particular focus on Africa, with Morocco hosting the meeting after 50 years since it was last held in the region.
The rural peoples expect these efforts to result in the further deterioration of our food systems and agriculture. The crux of the matter is that neoliberal control of our food systems and agriculture is causing today’s global crises, and there is no hope of a better, progressing world as long as the IMF-WB Group is in the picture of global development.
We have decades’ worth of experience on how structural adjustment programs and market-assisted land reforms have enabled land grabs, resource plunder, and the state neglect of the rural sector in order to give way to corporate interests. The IMF-WB has impoverished the lives and livelihood of rural communities. As long as this persists, the rural peoples will continue resisting its neoliberal programs and policies and reject its existence.
As such, the Reclaim our Future and the Global People’s Caravan on Food, Land, and Climate Justice campaigns call: RURAL PEOPLES UNITE VS. THE IMF-WB!
OBJECTIVES
- Demystify financialization by linking it to food issues and the role of the IMF-WB;
- Discuss IMF-WBG roles in the global food crisis and in harming rural communities in the Global South through their operations; and
- Advance thinking on and gather support for the struggles of social movements especially in the Global South against financialization and neoliberalism in food systems and agriculture.
ACTIVITIES
[WEBINAR] IMF-WB in the Global South: Financializing agriculture, impoverishing farmers
Date: October 5
Time: 11 a.m. Morocco & London / 1 p.m. Uganda / 6 p.m. Philippines / 6 a.m. Bolivia (Refer here for other time zones)
Register to join: bit.ly/RuralPeoplesUniteVsIMFWB
- Robert Bain, Bretton Woods Project
- Herman Kumara, National Fisheries Solidarity Organization (Sri Lanka)
- Anabelle Ilustrisimo, PDG Negros (Philippines)
- Myriam Helow, Agricultural Movement in Lebanon
- Gershom Kabaso, Zambia Social Forum
[WORKSHOP LIVESTREAM] IMF-WB’s impact on land and agriculture in WANA and the world
Register to join: bit.ly/RuralPeoplesUniteVsIMFWB
- Aziza Zargouth, Arab Network for Food Sovereignty
- Asmaa Awwad, Arab Group for the Protection of Nature
- Mohamed Hakesh, Fédération Nationale du Secteur Agricole
- Lester Gueta, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas
These events are build up activities for the Reclaim Our Future People’s Conference on the IMF-WBG, happening on October 8 to 9, 2023 in Marrakech, Morocco, and kick off of the Global People’s Caravan on Food, Land, and Climate Justice on October 16, World Hunger Day.
Organized by: People’s Coalition on Food Sovereignty, Arab Group for the Protection of Nature, Arab Network for Food Sovereignty, Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, Ibon International, Reality of Aid Network, and Bretton Woods Project. ###