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Contributions from
the Column
Media
Hunger and globalisation
Civil society – a changing concept
France’s own brand of development policy
Comprehensive, but not innovative
07/2006 |
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Comprehensive, but not innovative
Jan Jost Teunissen, Age Akkerman (eds.):
Helping the poor?
The IMF and Low-Income Countries.
Den Haag, FONDAD 2005,
253 p., Euro17.50, ISBN 90-74208-25-8
Jan Jost Teunissen, Age Akkerman (eds.):
Protecting the poor.
Global Financial Institutions and the
Vulnerability of Low-Income Countries.
Den Haag, FONDAD 2005, 170 p.,
¤ Euro15.00, ISBN 90-74208-26-6
The non-governmental organisation FONDAD (Forum on Debt and Development), headquartered in the Netherlands, has published two anthologies, both of which are devoted to the impact of International Monetary Fund policies on low-income countries. The articles stem from a conference in late 2004, wich was attended by numerous experts from both rich and poor countries.
The contributing authors discuss crucial issues such as how to prevent international debt crises, the reform of the global financial system, and how poor countries can protect themselves from external shocks. Two contributions highlight Africa’s specific problems with international funding. Both are relevant, because most of the low-income countries are situated in Africa. All the longer essays have brief supplementary papers, in which practitioners and critics of the funding organisations voice their opinions.
The articles are well-written and comprehensible to the interested reader, but few advance any new or original ideas. Most of them survey relevant literature. They raise many important questions on the international financial architecture and its impact on poor countries, but offer few clear solutions. The overview character of the books means that topics are rarely analysed in depth.
For this reason they are less than ideal for the specialist reader. However, those interested primarily in recommended courses of action in terms of policy will find several suggestions. Unfortunately, few of the texts explore the interests of the actors involved.
The major weak point of both books is that the individual contributions have no common analytical frame of reference. All concentrate on one and the same topic, but they offer no cohesive analysis of the impact on low-income countries of the global financial architecture and its most important multilateral organisation, the IMF. This shortcoming is particularly evident in the anecdotal structure of the introduction.
Individual articles, or the entire books, can be downloaded free of charge from the internet (www.fondad.org). Thus the book makes use of its intrinsic strength: the articles can provide both the background and the stimulus to the reader’s own work.
Klaus Liebig
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