Ever since the World Bank and the IMF were set up in 1944, their goal has been to fight poverty and aid development around the world. But the sister institutions have long been accused of favouring rich countries at the expense of poor nations.

On Thursday, thousands of activists, including several Africans, marched to the British Treasury to demand that the UK stop funding the two banks. Others go even further. The UK-based World Development Movement is calling for the World Bank and the IMF to be scrapped.

Africans must take charge of their destiny. Nobody forces any governmnet to go running to the World Bank. Governments have always chosen to because they can get cheaper loans from those institutions than from any high street lender. The World Bank and IMF indeed have stupid and counter productive policies, but don't infantilise Africa by assuming it has no choice but to go there.

If the World Bank was so great, why is the British government refusing to release its contribution? Why is the Third World not fairly represented on the IMF board? The world has become multipolar with the emergence of China, India and Brazil hence the irrelevance of these condition attaching institutions. Africa does not need institutions that seem to serve the interest of a few.

Scrapping the World Bank and IMF would be a classic case of throwing the baby out with the bath water. Sure it's made mistakes, but it has also supported some very good investments like the Highlands water scheme in Lesotho, that has been very successful in raising living standards there.

If after 62 years the IMF and World Bank have not been able to eradicate poverty in Africa. The rich countries are getting richer every day and the poor countries are getting poorer every day. Many live below a dollar a day. These institutions should be scrapped.

Is there not a lesson in the fact that China's sustained and fantastic growth was not conceived or designed by either the World Bank or the IMF? China has become a global economic player without Western Financial Institutions.

It is an open secret that these two institutions are set up to monitor world economic progress in favour of the so called developed world. This is not surprising since these rich countries are the ones who set up the bank and finance it, and what should man expect? In the world of business there is no mercy, that is unwritten law in economics and everyone knows it!

The World Bank does not understand Africa's problems but it always think it knows best and makes the wrong policy for Africans by forcing it on the government thereby causing Africa problem.

The World Bank and the IMF are two of the worst nightmares for African countries. That said, African leaders are also guilty of money laundering. The money given to African countries is not filtered down to the ordinary citizen but embezzled abroad. African citizens should play a big part in the democratisation of their governments.

No matter what the good intentions of individuals may be, the interests of finance capital dominate. Profit maximisation and the needs of humans who have minimal purchasing power do not always coincide. Stealing poor countries' commodities and exploiting their cheap labour to provide goods for Western markets is the history of imperialism that the IMF and World Bank have been part of.

I do appreciate the help towards Africa from the IMF and IBRD over the past decades. However, we Africans and our leaders need to take control of our destiny. We are all part of the problem. Loans to Africa can help stimulate our economies immediately in the form of top tier wages and salaries to locals. I say these institutions need to revamp their policies towards Africa so that what we practice or live is developmental economics and not just plain 'ol economics! To us Africans in the West and beyond, Africa needs the brain 'gain' now more than ever. So make a move and try to get into the mix in the form of businesses and institutions. No government can hire all of its people.

Third World countries go into debt with Western powers; they usually borrow money from Western world: but with normally high interest rates set by the masters, which are the World Bank and IMF in this case. Many of the developing countries would be better off without borrowing. The low economic productivity of developing countries gives them (less developed countries) a less position to determine their stands on interest rate as well as on other significant economic matters. In short, developed countries seem to use the poor countries for gain of economic growth in their individual countries; they set the economic laws that govern the world.

IMF and World Bank have played a significant role in making Africa poor, especially East Africa. After all they were made by the Western powers and for the West just to perpetuate their economic domination. Millions in Africa die because of their corruption every year.

Fighting to stand behind their ideology and imposing their economic and political views, employees of the IMF and World Bank remain withdrawn from the sad reality of the adverse effects that it has on the poor. If every one of them were to live a day in the life of those affected, I am sure their conscience would not be the same. Their lack of transparency, top down approach and one size fits all policy illustrates their imperialistic and stubborn attitude to change.

IMF, World Bank or whatever has more disadvantages than advantages because if we Africans do a continent resources assessment we should be able to know what we want, when we want, and, if we don't have it, how to get it. At the end you will find out that we going to be the lenders through African Monetary Fund (AMF).

Both institutions are Eurocentric. They lack insight into Third World economies simply because there are no text books on this topic. In applying their Eurocentric economic principles they constantly ignore the diversities the exists in Africa. Yes, we know that African leaders are corrupt, then why give them more money knowing what the outcome will be? I would like to know an African country that has implemented IMF and World Bank principles and is now the better for it. They're both relevant and loyal to the West but, not to Third World economies and definitely not to Africa.

Well, you have Ethiopia here, a country that has so many resources that it can feed one third of the world population. Since the IMF and World Bank got involved, it has become one of the poorest countries in the world. you be the judge of that.

Certainly African countries should have assistance in order to feed their people. There is no way African countries could have maintained their economies without the IMF and World Bank as well as support from developed countries.

I've recently travelled through Central and East Africa and one striking similarity is the energy crisis afflicting most economies. How is Africa to advance without energy? Why did the IMF/World Bank not realise and prioritise this in their advice to governments? Of course, the governments should take their share of the blame. After all, who will develop Africa if our leaders surrender thoughtful leadership and forward planning to bureaucrats from far, far away?

Yes, Africa needs the World Bank and the IMF as money lending institutions. But the aspect of dictating to her creditors and in fact accompanying whatever loans or grants given with so-called expatriates that attract hugh salaries, posh cars, furnished dwellings etc to implement projects thus taking back the money borrow to the country in question!

It's my birthday today and I can resoundly state that Africa does not need the IMF, the World Bank or any other partnership from the West. It's an illusion that salvation must come from the West. However, we can only take Africa forward if we change our inimical and dependent psychology now.

I am not an economist nor do I know all the facts. However, I do not think one needs to be a specialist to see certain things. If the World Bank and the IMF have been good for Africa, there should be something to show for it. Can someone name just one African country prospering from the works of these two institutions? I'll be very glad to learn.

The World Bank and IMF are the long hands of the West colonizing the developing countries. The performance of the World Bank staff is measured by how much money they disbursed in the form of loan to poor countries and get their kickbacks quickly thereby leaving citizens of the developing nation with a debt to pay for nothing in return. I think it is better to dismatle this vehcles of poverity so that we can grow by our owen.

The IMF and World Bank were set up to rebuild Europe after the 2nd world war - a task they excelled themselves in. But when it came to Africa, they have failed woefully simply because they are the fronts for Western businesses and governments seeking markets where they can to dump cheap goods. They lend to corrupt governments knowing full well that a large chunk of the money will end up in Western banks. If they are for real, they should be lending to the particular governments, not the state since the debts becomes a burden on the state and its people for many years, even after a corrupt government is out of power. IMF and the Bank are irrelevant in today's world, certainly in Africa.

In my opinion any kind of financial aid needs constant monitoring i.e. assessmens, budgets, visits etc, to have an idea of how the money is used.

It's time IMF and world packed up and disappeared. Africa does not need them anymore. Africa's economy can improve if they left, since the money they give has encouraged corruption in governments. They are an investment strategy for the richer nation since they lend to poor nations with a lot of interest. They are diplomatic control tool to governments since they come with conditions like structural adjustment programs that has made many people to suffer. Africa does not need external help in finance.

The IMF and World Bank is the West's and American economic imperialism. They were formed to loan money and have done so at loan-shark rates to the "developing" world. The same countries that were looting for gold, diamonds, natural resources then became a dumping spot of cheap goods. These instutitions should forgive African debt in order to raise the standard of living and infrastructure standards in the "developing" world.

The World Bank and IMF have done some capacity building in many African countries in last 20 years. This has helped in entrenching sound economic management which was lacking in these countries. The problem however is in the two institution's rigidity and failure to take into account the real needs of the poor people in recepient countries; those who are most affected by World Bank/IMF policies. Moreover, we know these institutions are in business of giving loans without which they can not survive, But, their policies should change if they are to remain relevant.

The 80's are said to be the lost decade for Africa. Why? Because it was the period of World Bank and IMF structural adjustment programs. And the African countries which have succeeded simply did not follow their prescriptions. Sounds to me like another instance of western institutions underminig development again.

Certainly, erronous advice coupled with bad governance regimes and greedy leaders has left Africa behind. The elites are detached from the people and are more worried about their own European style living and not about feeding the citizens. IMF and World Bank have been partners with these folks, cooking up economic statistics showing progress while in fact there has been regression in economic, social and politcal development.

Yes, the IMF and World Bank have done good, but they have also been used by countries like the United States to exert control on those who disagree with the US imperialistic policies. Hopefully a just alternative organization can be formed, absent of corruption, that will provide the nations of the world with the support that they need.

IMF and the World Bank are the new forms of imperialism in Africa. They were the result of the imperialist's ideologies. The under-development of Africa has more to do with the policies imposed by these institutions more so than the government corruption. IMF and World Bank implement policies based on the Western ideas of development and that is the core problem.

In principal the institutions are a God-send. But it has long been established however that their reform programs are not home grown or tailored to the recipient country and therefore have more negative than positive outcomes. A system to take account of different countries unique situations would better the chances of success in my opinion.

China does not do business with the World Bank and the IMF. yet the Chinese economy is the fastest growing economy in the world. Since Nigeria started doing business with the IMF Nigerians have been impoverished by the IMF conditionalities.The Nigerian middle class has disappeared. Nigerians cannot buy new industrial products anylonger. Nigerians now struggle to buy used cars that have been barred from European roads. The Nigerian Naira which was 1 to 2 US Dollars is now 140 to 1 US Dollar. What a shame.

It's not the enslaved masses in Africa that benefit from these financial institutions. IMF and World Bank policies should target corruption, money laundering, and other types of financial crime.

The IMF and World Bank have crippled the Africa and is largely responsible for the economic decline Africa has faced in the last thirty years or so. Their policies, which also include the privatisation of state industries that were profitable and employed thousands of Africans, have led to a situation where there is mass unemployment. Young people end up in major African cities selling anything from handkerchiefs through to PK mints. This is a trend that has contributed to the over crowding of our major cities.

They seem to create more problems than solutions to us in Cameroon. Think back to Cameroon in 1994 when the CFA devaluation meant a 70% salary cut. Which of IMF and World Bank workers are on the kind of chicken feed salary earned in Cameroon? They give with the right hand and take back double with the left hand.

African countries were duped into borrowing from these banks. The IMF/World Bank conditions for repayment have played a key role in devastating their agricultural sector. Yes, these banks should be scrapped.

We need to understand that the sister institutions serve the interest of share holder countries. We need also to understand that African countries would not go to them for loans and other aid development if there were other sources of financing. I think, at least at this point, this is a reality we need to accept as it is.

No World Bank program has ever been successful. I agree with those who say it favours rich countries. All the mechanisms set to "help" end up killing the local economy. You cannot set economic program for Congo, Kenya etc. sitting in an office in New York or Washington when you've never been in these countries. Just because you have been in Inter Continental in Nairobi and met a couple of businessmen.

Both institutions are very outdated and possibly running scared since they've blocked the World Development Movement and several other NGO's from attending their annual meeting in Singapore.

I choose to call the IMF and the World Bank the "ghost arm of government" in Africa. Being a ghost arm, it never fails to amaze me why they are always insensitive to the plight of the ordinary man in the street struggling to make ends meet. While I am at it, let me sound a word of caution to the politicians who accept just about any policy in the name of aid to satisfy their selfish interest to be wary.

The IMF and World Bank have not helped Africa. Instead they have contributed to dismal growth of the African economy. They are vehicles for exploiting African resources and only serve the interest of the waste. I urge African countries to forget these two beasts if they are to make any progress economically.

I have never benefited from any World Bank funding. The citizens hear about it on the news but whatever happens from there remains a mystery. There is no accountability to the general public. The people in charge just do their own thing. But Africa definitely needs both of them. Until Africa is on her feet, the World Bank and IMF will remain a life line.

Monies borrowed from these institutions end up in the coffers of consultants imposed on African governments. The governments should invest in the Africa Development Bank and be borrowing from it. Which African countries can these financial institutions point at as their success story since 1944? A policy is only good when it's workable and for this to take place Africans are needed as consultants for projects in Africa as they are not new to the African values, cultures and norms needed for the viability of any project.

Although the World Bank and the IMF opened their aid taps in Kenya immediately after Mwai Kibaki came to power, nothing has changed. The economic situation in Kenya is even worse than it was during the President Moi's reign when the two institutions were not lending money to Kenya. I believe the money ends up in the pockets of a few individuals in power. The youth and the poor continue to languish in poverty and we'll be the ones who end up paying back the loans from the two institutions. Until corruption is wiped away, we see no need for the World Bank and IMF.

The World Bank & IMF should not be entirely blamed for failing to lift Africa out of poverty since World War Two. Rather we should do some soul searching and make radical changes to our lives. The first thing that comes to mind is the lack of planned settlements (shanty townships). In my opinion these have made decent town planning, funded by these two global institutions, very difficult. Corruption, crime, illiteracy and disease are other hindrances. This means that the funds from these two just end up in a bottomless pit.

Endemic corruption have siphoned Africa's wealth to private pockets. Therefore IMF and World Bank are indispensable to Africa. Should we be concerned about the negative socio-economic effects of IMF conditionalities on the African people or should we be more sceptical about the interplay of local, regional and global factors in ripping the continent of its resources? A united Africa that is corruption-free would not need IMF for "economic restoration". Wake up African leaders!

The United States holds the presidency of the World Bank even if it now has the highest national debt. When will this debt be called in and when will Third World countries get a fair say? The World Bank makes governments remove subsidies from African farmers. It argues that this fosters competition. Still, it does not demand the same thing from European and American farmers, so who is it helping? This policy is causing wide spread poverty. We need an organisation that is fair to all. I say, down with the World Bank and the IMF.

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