Les institutions financières internationales vues du Sud

The paper discusses the assistance of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)) and the World Bank (WB) to low-income countries as viewed by the recipients. The paper recognizes the critical role of the IMF as crisis manager and of the WB as a mean to channel resources from rich countries to low income countries that do not have access to private capital markets. Particular attention is paid to the issues of the conditionality attached to their loans and to ownership by the assisted countries. The paper is however critical of the intrusiveness of structural conditionality, particularly when the reforms have led to premature privatisations and financial opening. It is also argued that the traditional conditionality of the IMF based on the monetary approach to the balance of payments needs an overhaul in a world of large capital movements. Similarly, the fiscal austerity component that appears in most IMF programs needs a broader vision and a more careful application. Ownership is found limited by cultural and political factors in the countries assisted, to which, it is argued, little attention is paid by the IFIs. While the discussion bears more on the poorest countries, references are also made, given the wild swings in capital movements that affect the countries of emergent economies, to the problems of surveillance. The current streamlining of conditionality and more ownership of the programs by the low income countries are steps in the right direction, but they need to be more daring. For the middle income country the role of IMF as crisis manager is underlined.