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| Author: | Eduardo Gudynas |
|---|
August 12, 2008
For many years now particular attention has been paid to the large International Financial Institutions (IFIs), such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Their repercussions in Latin America as in other regions are notorious, ranging from financing various infrastructure projects with serious social and environmental impacts, to support for private investment; from reforms in social policies (such as health and education) to the conditionalities that these IFIs imposed on national development strategies.
In Latin America, attention has focused on three IFIs: the World Bank (WB), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Today the credibility and legitimacy of these institutions has been deeply eroded. Their programs have become the target of many critics and citizen action campaigns, leading to an overall consensus regarding their serious limitations and the problems triggered by their actions. Moreover, many of these organisms have been the victims of their own mismanagement (particularly the IMF's mishandling of financial crises and the World Bank's internal corruption scandals).
Meanwhile in Latin America, a substantial political shift has taken place with the appearance of progressive governments in several countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Uruguay, and Venezuela in particular). In some cases, these new governments have criticized certain IFIs, are restructuring their relations with them, and have begun to search for alternative financing of their own.
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