October 14, 2023
The WB and IMF were created in 1944 when most of Africa was still colonized. There was no fundamental change made to these institutions when they met in Nairobi 50 years ago, and no such changes were announced in Marrakesh that would lead me to believe that the global financial architecture would be decolonized any time soon.
This neocolonial global financial architecture has delivered exactly what it was designed to do, which is:
1) to extract cheap raw materials for the Global North
2) to create large consumer markets for the industrial output of the Global North, and
3) to outsource obsolete technologies and low value-added manufacturing to the Global South.
This neocolonial global financial architecture has failed us economically and ecologically, so we cannot expect it to be the same architecture that will solve our problems today.
The WB and IMF did not indicate any interest in decolonizing African economies or addressing the roots of our external debt problems. We didn’t hear any announcements about prioritizing strategic investments in food sovereignty and agroecology, or investments in renewable energy infrastructure and clean cooking technology for deployment in Africa, or investments in pan-Africain high value-added industrialization.
World Bank and IMF leaders did not even send any staff members to represent them on civil society-sponsred panels that they were invited to, which shows a complete disregard and lack of respect to any constructive criticism and alternative policy proposals.
This should galvanize efforts across the Global South to build alternative financial institutions that would challenge the hegemony of the global trade, investment, and financial architectures, and would render the World Bank and IMF redundant institutions that must either be radically transformed or dismantled.
Fadhel Kaboub is an Associate Professor of economics at Denison University (on leave), and the president of the Global Institute for Sustainable Prosperity, He has recently served as Under-Secretary-General for Financing for Development at the Organisation of Southern Cooperation in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Dr. Kaboub is an expert on designing public policies to enhance monetary and economic sovereignty in the Global South, build resilience, and promote equitable and sustainable prosperity. His recent work focuses on Just Transition, Climate Finance, and transforming the global trade, finance, and investment architecture. His most recent co-authored publication is Just Transition: A Climate, Energy, and Development Vision for Africa (May 2023, published by the Independent Expert Group on Just Transition and Development.). He has held a number of research affiliations with the Levy Economics Institute (NY), the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University (MA), the Economic Research Forum (Cairo), Power Shift Africa (Nairobi), and the Center for Strategic Studies on the Maghreb (Tunis). He is currently based in Nairobi, Kenya and is working on climate finance and development policies in Africa. You can follow him on Twitter @FadhelKaboub
PHwakawaka 