Some of the questions that I will be focusing on include: What do the reforms include? What are the problems the reforms are designed to solve? Will they succeed? What are the obstacles to reform?
The IMF was created in 1944 as an organization to promote international monetary cooperation through exchange rate stability and to facilitate the expansion of international trade by addressing balance of payment problems among the initial twenty nine member countries. In recent decades the IMF members have grown significantly. From its first twenty nine members, to now one hundred and eighty three members are now apart of the IMF. Form its original mandate in 1944- to coordinate national currencies- the IMF mandates has significantly expanded. Now the IMF offers financial support and credit to countries in need of financial assistance. The IMF provides fiscal and monetary advice to governments and local economies. In recent years the IMF has received backlash for its policies. Some have argued that the IMF policies and the conditions that the IMF attaches to its loans do more damage than good. Their policies put countries, developing countries especially, in a worse position than they were in before, by allowing them to go further in debt with little hope of recovery. There are numerous cases where the IMF has failed. A few case studies form Latin America, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, to name a few, illustrated the hardships of many countries’ development prospects. The IMF is in desperate need of reform if it wishes to gain back its respect and trust back from the nations in which it had shunned and ruined. The IMF need to implement new policy that will help push the impoverished countries in steps toward economic independence and ready to compete within the global market. In order for this to happen the IMF need looser restraints and conditions on their loans and should increase their watch on how these recipient countries spend their money. The IMF is also planning to implement transparency, so people can see what decisions the IMF has made and what policies that they have implemented. This is also a necessary element for reform. The IMF has seen some major changes in recent decades, including advancement in technology, economics and politics. Because the IMF has seen the world change it is now time for the world to see the IMF change and reform itself to better the rest of the world.
