Global Policy Forum

By Nasreen Seria

African countries have taken advantage of the sudden departure of the MD of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to lobby for a stronger voice for developing countries in the governance of the fund.

African finance ministers, meeting in Sandton last week, called for transparency in the selection of a new IMF leader to replace Horst Kí¶hler, who resigned earlier this month, when he was nominated as a German presidential candidate.

"We want to send a signal on the importance to have transparency and participation in the selection of the leadership in this institution," said Burkina Faso's Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Marie Pascal Campaore. The convention has always been that the head of the IMF was from western Europe and the head of the World Bank was American, but African finance ministers said last week that there was "no rule in the rule book" that set this out.

Sudanese Finance Minister AlZubair Ahmed al-Hassan said the delegation was not lobbying for the new IMF leader to be African, but wanted the selection procedure to be more transparent and to ensure that developing countries had a voice in the selection of Kí¶hler's successor.

African ministers would lobby for a number of African advisers to be appointed to assist the new IMF leader, Campaore said.

"It is important that the new IMF MD has a critical number of African advisers, not only so that he can be open to African issues, but also to (be provided) with the appropriate context in which policies are applied," he said.

African finance ministers also called for reform of outdated rules governing IMF voting rights, to boost the decision-making power of developing countries.

Finance Minister Paul Bohoun Bouabre of Cí´te d'Ivoire said the criteria that determined voting power created in 1944, when the IMF and World Bank were established had remained unchanged, despite fundamental shifts in the global economy.

"Certain criteria were decided to work out quotas then, which have not been changed since, whereas the world has changed. Africa has changed," he said.

The US and European bloc countries have veto power in IMF decisions by virtue of their large economies and financial contributions to the fund.

President Thabo Mbeki told delegates African nations should tackle the matter with a uniform view. "(A) stronger voice of developing countries in the (IMF and World Bank) cannot be separated from our efforts to ensure that Africans do, themselves, speak with a unified voice on all the challenges facing our continent," Mbeki said.