Presently, the extent of IMF
contacts with CSOs varies greatly,
depending on region, topic, and the
people involved. The IMF plans to
develop the staff guidelines by
examining successes and failures and
exploring the dynamics of its evolving
relationship with civil society. The
IMF Executive Board expressed support
for the study (http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pn/2003/pn0333.htm)
during the course of its discussion of
the Fund external communications
strategy, a paper (http://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/docs/2003/021303.htm)
that contains an annex (Annex II) on
Fund relations with civil society.
The study is scheduled for completion
in mid-2003, and the guidance note to
staff will follow.
To ensure that the study is
independent and reflects a balanced
spectrum of views from civil society,
the Fund has called on an outside
expert, Prof. Jan Aart Scholte of the
Centre for the Study of Globalization
and Regionalization at the University
of Warwick in the U.K., who will
facilitate the discussion within the
Fund and seek ideas and commentary
from a variety of civil society
organizations.
Prof. Scholte is well acquainted
with the CSO world, as well as IMF
headquarters and field staff. He wrote
a report last year, "Civil Society
Voices and the International Monetary
Fund," published by the North-South
Institute in Ottawa (www.nsi-ins.ca/download/Int_Mon_Fund.pdf),
that was based on 300 interviews with
IMF staff and CSO members in more than
dozen countries. The report concluded
that relations between the Fund and
civil society can benefit both sides,
as well as society in general. "Civil
society activism has helped to make
the IMF more publicly transparent," he
wrote. "The IMF is today far less
obscure and secretive than it was
before various civil society advocates
launched concerted calls for greater
openness."
Obstacles to dialogue do exist
within both IMF staff and CSOs, Prof.
Scholte found. His report said that
the IMF as an organization is still
somewhat new to the idea that contacts
with civil society are vital to the
Fund's work. On the other hand, some
members of the CSO world have no
interest in interaction with an
organization that Scholte says they
see as an "instrument of imperialism."
Nevertheless, the drive to widen
the lines of communication is stronger
than the resistance, according to
Prof. Scholte. He also argued against
the notion that the goal of IMF-CSO
dialogue should be consensus. A better
outcome would be the creation of a
setting in which debates about
regulating the global economy become
livelier and more informed, resulting
in creative proposals.
In keeping with the spirit of the
information-gathering project, the
staff guidelines that will emerge will
be posted on the IMF web site (http://www.imf.org)
with an invitation for further public
commentary and suggestions. |