International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is one of the most powerful actors in the global economy. The IMF reviews countries' economic policies and lends money to developing countries facing financial or debt crises. An IMF programme is a "seal of approval" for a developing country to access other financing. In order to get an IMF programme, a country must agree to implement policies to "structurally adjust" its economy. These policies have been widely criticized for having negatively impacted growth, the environment and poor people in particular.

Our campaign to fundamentally transform the IMF has focused on:

• cancelling the debt owed to the IMF by the poorest countries;
• promoting a fair and transparent arbitration process for resolving middle income debt crisis;
• halting IMF support for structural adjustment policies (SAPs) as currently constituted;
• promoting alternatives to the current global financial architecture (GFA), including the use of the Tobin tax;
• making the links between the IMF agenda, the World Trade Organization and trade agreements
• changing policies and governance of the IMF to increase democratic space, transparency, community involvement, full and open public participation and public accountability.