The Bretton Woods institutions – the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF)- have completed 80 years of existence and operations. As people of the global south, who continue to bear the brunt of the impacts of colonial expansion, resource extraction, wealth concentration, climate change and deepening inequality, we demand that these institutions be shut down and make way for a new global democratic and decentralised economic system which protects both people and the planet. For far too long, the World Bank and IMF have been instrumental in entrenching a system of global financial governance that perpetuates poverty and inequality, displaces people and communities, and destroys nature, livelihoods and life itself.
The World Bank and IMF were created in 1944 at the end of the Second World War to ostensibly rebuild war-torn economies and countries newly liberated from colonialism through international economic cooperation. In truth, however, they have globalised a model of development and financialisation that is rooted in the colonial logic of extraction and exploitation and have been vehicles for the continued extraction and transfer of wealth from the Global South to the Global North.
The Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) and austerity measures imposed by the World Bank and IMF respectively included the privatisation of essential public services including water, electricity, education, healthcare and transportation, steep cuts in spending on social protection and welfare programmes, labour market deregulation, drastic wage cuts and labour contractualisation, and the reduction and/or elimination of subsidies in food and agriculture resulting in hunger and food and nutrition insecurity. Not only was the existing public sector substantially shrunk across the global south, but the very conditions of building/rebuilding robust public sectors were eliminated. Rural and urban working classes, poor communities, women, small-scale food producers, indigenous peoples and other marginalised groups were the hardest hit by these policies.
The policy conditionalities at the core of SAPs, austerity measures and so-called Development policy and fiscal stabilisation loans aligned with the economic and financial interests of Western countries that were former colonial powers. These policies, commonly known as the Washington Consensus, boosted the market power of western transnational corporations and established forms of financial-economic governance that have snared countries in vicious debt traps, undermining national sovereignty and people’s democratic control over their resources in the global south.
Projects funded by the World Bank such as big dams, mines, ports, and other large infrastructure projects have displaced entire communities and villages, caused deforestation, and accelerated ecological destruction and degradation. The earth has been plundered, and countless peoples have been dispossessed of their means to dignified livelihoods and lives.
People across the world in the global south and north have risen up against the World Bank and IMF, leading to massive protests challenging their policies and conditionalities. In India, protests by affected communities against the World Bank-supported Sardar Sarovar hydropower project that resulted in large-scale displacement without adequate resettlement and rehabilitation forced the World Bank to withdraw its support, citing social and environmental impacts. Likewise, the fisher people in Mundra, Gujarat challenged the immunity of the World Bank after their sea and fisheries were destroyed by a thermal power plant funded by the World Bank Group. The tea garden workers of Assam have been questioning the complicity of IFC in perpetuating the low wages, and poor living conditions of tea workers giving rise to poverty and child labour. The policies of the World Bank and the push for privatisation and deregulation have impacted people’s access to health and quality education on the one hand and impacted the collective bargaining rights of the labour and environmental regulations. .
Despite the destruction that they have wreaked on people, societies, economies and nature, the World Bank and IMF have faced no consequences. Their respective founding charters provide them with full immunity from legal and material accountability–they are literally above the law. The introduction of Inspection Panels and social safeguard policies have not changed their policies and operations in any meaningful manner, and have reduced all accountability measures to toothless instruments.
Given their origins, history and track records, we believe that the World Bank and IMF are beyond reform. Their governance, policies, and market obsessed economic paradigm are too deeply entrenched in the status quo to allow for meaningful change and their transformation from forces for evil to forces for good. We need a fundamental paradigm change through new institutions founded on principles of democratic and decentralised economic governance, prioritising equality, sustainability, and the needs of all nations, not just a select few.
These new institutions must be committed to truly inclusive development, ensuring that all voices are heard – especially of those who bear the brunt of financial, economic and social insecurity – and that policies are designed to meet the needs of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations. They should promote development approaches that are embedded in human rights, protect the environment, and ensure the abilities of future generations to live in dignity, harmony and peace. The new institutions should support genuine debt relief initiatives as a matter of urgency and provide favourable financing that helps countries break free from the vicious cycles of debt dependency.
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The new paradigm of financial and economic governance must recognise the interconnectedness of economic, social, environmental, climate and political justice. It must end the financialisation of nature, protect the rights of indigenous peoples, local communities, workers, women and youth, and legally regulate the economic power of transnational corporations.
It is time for the World Bank and IMF to realise that their time is over. These outdated institutions should be replaced by ones that reflect the needs and aspirations of all communities and nations. Only by doing so can we build a more just, equitable, and sustainable world.
Endorsed by:
1. Aashima Subberwal – Friends of Earth India
2. Abha – One Billion Rising
3. Achin Vanaik
4. Adarsh K Warman
5. Aditya Nigam
6. Adv Dr Shalu Nigam
7. Agnes Kharshiing
8. Alpha Thomson Abumwami – YPC
9. Ambika Yadav – Jharkhand Kishan Parishad
10. Amitanshu Verma – Centre for Financial Accountability
11. Anant Phadker – Shramik Mukti Dal
12. Andrew Wheeldon – Bicycle Cities
13. Anirban – CFA
14. Anne Stegmann
15. Annie Namala
16. Anshu Kumari – JJSV, Bihar
17. Anto Elias – KSMTF
18. Aparna – NCDHR
19. Aravind Unni – NAPM – SHRAM (Urban Struggles Forum)
20. Arundhati Dhuru – NAPM
21. Ashish Kothari
22. Ashish Ranjan – JJSS
23. Ashok Choudhary – All India Union of Forest Working People (AIUFWP)
24. Ashok Shrimali – Mines, Mineral & People
25. Asmi Sharma – Jan Sarokar
26. Avinash Kumar Chanchal – Greenpeace India
27. Aysha – Right to Food Campaign
28. Badami Lal – Aravallis Suraksha Udaipur
29. Banojyotsna – Independent Research Consultant
30. Benny Kuruvilla – Focus on the Global South
31. Bhanumathi Kalluri – Dhaatri
32. Bhargav Oza
33. Bhavreen Kandhari
34. Bijay Bjai – Bharat Jana Andolan
35. Butchaiah Gadde – United Nations
36. Chinmay Mishra – Madhya Pradesh Sarvoday Mandal
37. Chythenyen – Centre for Financial Accountability
38. Debsmita Roychowdhury
39. Devaky
40. Devidas Tuljapurkar – Maharashtra State Bank Employees Federation
41. Dinesh Abrol – Delhi Science Forum
42. Disha A Ravi – Fridays For Future India
43. Dr Meena Kandasamy – Writer
44. Dr Sunilam – Kisan Sangharsh Samiti
45. Dr. O. G. Sajitha
46. Dr. Suhas Kolhekar – National Alliance of People’s Movements
47. Eddy Monte
48. Elsy Gomes
49. Financial Accountability Network India (FAN India)
50. Fr. Eugene Pereira
51. Gautam Bandyopadhyay – Nadi Ghati Morcha – India
52. Geeta Sahu
53. Geo Damin – Poovulagin Nanbargal
54. Guman Singh – Himalaya Niti Abhiyan
55. Hans Kaushik
56. Haripriya Harshan – CFA
57. Himanshu Thakkar – SANDRP
58. Himmat Singh – Bahujan Communist Party
59. Ian Williamson
60. India Greens Party
61. Jacob Kurien – Sarvodayasangham
62. Jammu Anand – Indian Social Action Forum
63. Jannet Cletus – Theeradesa Mahila Vedi
64. Jawan Singh – VMKS
65. Joe Athialy – Centre for Financial Accountability
66. John Dayal – Writer
67. John Dsouza – CED
68. Jones Thomas Spartegus
69. Josephine Joseph – CWCSN
70. K VITTALRAO – RAI CENTRE Utnoor, Adilabad
71. K.V Krishna Kumar
72. Kailash Anerao – Environmental & Climate Change Activist
73. Kailash Mina – NAPM
74. Kamayani – JJSS
75. Kangkimang Takuk – Siang Indigenous Farmers Forum (SIFF)
76. Kanhaiya – Aravalli Mazdoor Sangathan
77. Kapil Agarwal – YMC
78. Kavita
79. Khirod Routray – Udyog
80. KP Das
81. Krishna
82. Krunal
83. Kurien John
84. Lalita Ramdas
85. Lambodar Mohanta – EKTA NIKETAN
86. Lara Jesani
87. Lima Sunil – Fr. Thomas Kocherry Centre
88. Linda Chhakchhuak
89. Lisa Pires
90. Lucas Braganca
91. Mahendra Kumar – NCAER
92. Maimoona Mollah – AIDWA Delhi-NCR
93. Maju Varghese – BIC Trust India
94. Mallela Seshagiri Rao – Capital Region Farmers Federation, Amaravathi
95. Manan – Independent Journalist
96. Manasi – Johns Hopkins University
97. Manisha Desai – Center for Changing Systems of Power, Stonybrook University
98. Md. Zahidul Islam – COAST Foundation
99. Mecanzy Dabre – Kamgar Ekata Union, Maharashtra
100. Meera Sanghamitra – National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM)
101. Mercy Mathew – Cheru Resmi Centre
102. Mohammad Chappalwala – Sambhaavnaa Institute
103. Moncy M Thomas
104. Monica – Independent Researcher
105. Moushumi Basi – Jawaharlal Nehru University
106. Mujahid Nafees – MCC
107. Mukta Srivastava
108. Muralidharan – National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled
109. Nancy Pathak – Pension Parishad
110. Narayan Lal Panwar
111. National Hawker Federation
112. Navdeep Mathur – IIM Ahmedabad
113. Nawaz – Avsar Collective
114. Neelam Ahluwalia Nakra – Founder Member, People for Aravallis
115. Nidhi
116. Nikhil Dey – MKSS
117. Nikita Chatterjee
118. Nikita Naidu – Climate Action
119. Nitin
120. Nitin Sethi
121. P. M. Bhattacharya
122. Pamela Philipose
123. Pavuluri Siva Prasad
124. People for Aravallis
125. Pervin Jehangir
126. Prafulla Samantara – Lok Shakti Abhiyan
127. Prakash Chandra Bhagota – SR Abhiyan
128. Prakash Louis
129. Pranay Raj – CFA
130. Pranita Kulkarni – CFA
131. Prasad Chacko – People’s Union for Civil Liberties
132. Priya Dharshini – Delhi Forum
133. Purushan Eloor – Periyar Malineekarana Virudha Samithy
134. R Ravi – Samata
135. R. Ajayan – Editor, Navayugom, Kerala
136. Raj Kumar Sinha – Bargi Bandh Visthapit Evam Parbhavit Sangh
137. Raj Shekhar – Right to Food Campaign
138. Rakesh Dewan – Sarvodaya Press Service
139. Ram Puniyani – All India Secular Forum
140. Ram Wangkheirakpam – Indigenous Perspectives
141. Ranjan Kumar – JJSV, Bihar
142. Rashi Rajgor
143. Ravindranath – River Basin Friends
144. Rita Das
145. Rizwan – Pension Parishad
146. Rohini Hensman – Writer and Independent Scholar
147. Rohit Prajapati – Environment Activist, Gujarat
148. Roma – All India Union of Forest Working People
149. Rosamma Thomas – Freelancer
150. Saba Dave
151. Sabita Lahkar – NWMi
152. Sagari Ramdas – Food Sovereignty Alliance
153. Saktiman Ghosh – National Hawker Federation, India
154. Sameer Vartak – Paryavarn Samvardhan Samiti
155. Samir K. Chakravorty – Freelancer
156. Sandeep Pamarati
157. Sandiksha Roychowdhury
158. Sandip Roychowdhury
159. Sanjeev Chandorkar
160. Sarath Cheloor – Dynamic Action, Keralam
161. Sarika – IGP
162. Satheesh Lakshmanan – Poovulagin Nanbargal
163. Sauraj Gurjar
164. Sayantan Das
165. Shabnam Hashmi – Anhad
166. Shamala Kumar – University of Peradeniya
167. Sheelu Francis – Women’s Collective
168. Shehri Mahila Kamgar Union
169. Shiraz Bulsara Prabhu – PUCL
170. Sho – Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan, Bihar, India
171. Shruti – PhD student at VIT-AP University
172. Shweta Tambe
173. Shyam – चरागाह एवं पर्यावरण विकास समिति
174. Simran Grover
175. Sitaram Shelar
176. Soumya Dutta – Bharat Jan Vigyan Jatha (BJVJ)
177. Subham Biswas – Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan
178. Suchetana Ghosh
179. Sujata Patel
180. Sukumaran Krishnan – Advocate
181. Suma Josson
182. Suresh Garimella – CPI-M
183. Sutapa Majumdar
184. Tani Alex – Financial Accountability Network India
185. Thomas Franco – People First
186. Uma Shankar
187. Usha Lachungpa – Green Circle, Sikkim
188. Usmangani Sherasiya – Samsat Machimar Samaj Gujarat
189. Vaishnavi Paliya – Azim Premji University
190. Vaishnavi Varadarajan – International Accountability Project
191. Vanaja Mercima Soundarabai
192. Veena M – Ecosystems Services
193. Venkateswara Rao Maddi – Maddi Lakshmaiah & Co Pvt Ltd
194. Vijoo Krishnan – All India Kisan Sabha
195. Vinay Baindur
196. Vinita Balekundri – Maharashtra Hawker Federation
197. Vinod Koshy – Dynamic Action
198. Yash Agrawal – Fridays For Future Mumbai, & Atlas Movement
199. Youth For Himalayas
