There is not much to celebrate in the various initiatives coming from the Trump administration. But the strong statement by US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent at the spring meetings of IMF and the World Bank is right on the mark. His recognition that both institutions have “enduring value” and his message that both suffer from “mission creep” and “sprawling and unfocused agendas” are on the mark (Report, April 24).
The IMF, he notes, has no business straying beyond economic policy. He could also have asked why so many countries — Argentina, Pakistan, Egypt, Ukraine — are given repeated IMF programmes. And why countries like Greece have back-to-back programmes, demonstrating serial borrowing. IMF conditionality needs to be taken seriously and enforced.
The World Bank, he rightly notes, has strayed far from its mission into “buzzword-centric marketing”. This is accurate given the expansive definition of development by the bank that now includes virtually every aspect of life and expects nothing short of “societal change” in its social development agenda. This has also meant a diffusion of its core agenda that in turn has added to a severely bloated bureaucracy. Bessent could also have asked a more overarching question as to how the bank has adapted its activities for a vastly changed world — from a predominantly poor world at its formation to now a predominantly middle-income world.
I hope the US, as the leading shareholder, will take the lead in serious introspection and propose reforms that result in much more sharply focused institutions free of the buzzwords he decries.
Inder Sud
Former Director, World Bank,
Reston, VA, US
