UN, World Bank, IMF in need of urgent reforms: Finance Minister Sitharaman

Boston, October 13

Institutions such as United Nations, World Bank and International Monetary Fund need to be urgently reformed as they no longer speak for countries whose issues have remained unattended to for decades, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.

All these organisations would have to look at reforming themselves, she said at Harvard Kennedy School here on Tuesday.

During the conversation with Professor at Harvard University Lawrence Summers at the talk organised by the Mossavar-Rahmani Centre for Business and Government, Sitharaman said “while reforms in countries are happening in different stages, these global institutions have remained the way they have been for the last several decades”.

Many of them now no longer speak for countries whose issues have remained unattended to for decades together, whether it is on trade, security, monetary framework and on funding development, she stated.

“There is a desperate need for all these institutions to be more transparent, represent and speak for countries which don’t get adequate representation; and therefore I would think that is something which has to happen immediately.”

When these institutions become more representative, she said there would be more equitable distribution of resources, more concern for equitable development for growth. “This whole dialogue which used to happen – north-south – looked as if it’s moving towards irrelevance.

“But the issues of north-south still remain. Development has not reached many parts of Africa, many parts of the small Pacific islands. Many parts of those countries, even within countries, where there is differentiated development. So I think that’s what would have happened if only this reform agenda had been taken up by these institutions,” she said.

Sitharaman arrived in the US on Monday for a week-long trip to attend the annual meet of the World Bank and IMF in Washingon as well as G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting. During the official visit to the US, Sitharaman is expected to meet US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. PTI