Quarterly Bulletin
Spring 2013
Committee Hosts Successful Congressional Seminar
On March 8, the Committee welcomed 56 Congressional staffers, members, and friends for an introduction to the IFIs, held on Capitol Hill.
Led by Committee Co-Chair and former U.S. Representative Bill Frenzel (R-MN), the seminar involved discussions of the World Bank Group, Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), and International Monetary Fund (IMF). It featured remarks by Julie Katzman, Executive Vice President and COO of the Inter-American Development Bank, Jim Kolbe, Senior Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, John Lipsky, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at Johns Hopkins University SAIS, and Charles McDonough, Vice President and Controller of the World Bank Group. The segments outlined the distinctive work of each institution and discussed the importance of U.S. involvement in their work.
On March 5, a bipartisan group of top former Cabinet officials and other dignitaries also released a letter, coordinated by the Bretton Woods Committee, urging Congress to maintain U.S. leadership in the IMF. The letter supports the Administration’s request to double the U.S. quota and commensurately reduce the U.S. commitment to lend to the IMF’s New Arrangements to Borrow, as part of the reforms agreed upon by the Fund’s members in 2010.
On March 12, Reuters reported that the Senate Appropriations Committee and the House separately “rebuffed” the Administration’s request to include the funding in this fiscal year. Congress begins work on the 2014 budget this Spring and the Administration would have the opportunity to try again to get the request through.
In This Issue
ADB Roundtable Looks at Risk Management and Priorities
On February 15, the Committee brought together 17 members and friends for an intimate roundtable discussion with Thierry de Longuemar, Asian Development Bank (ADB) Vice President for Finance and Risk Management, at the ADB North American Relations Office in Washington, DC. During his presentation, Vice President de Longuemar outlined ADB’s priorities for 2013 and beyond, including the challenge of finding sufficient funds to contribute to the expected $8 trillion Asia needs to sustain its growth and the $290 billion needed for regional infrastructure.
BWC Launches New Website
The Bretton Woods Committee is delighted to announce the launch of its redesigned website, www.brettonwoods.org.
The new site features more information on Committee programs, educational resources on the Bretton Woods institutions, and links to procurement and contracting opportunities. It also offers the Committee greater opportunities to share photographs and recordings of events with members worldwide.
Member’s Perspective: IFIs Need Fresh Effort to Fight Corruption
In the mid-1990s, under the determined leadership of James Wolfensohn, the World Bank recognized that it could no longer ignore the issue of corruption. It made curbing the abuse of public office for private gain a major priority. Not long thereafter, other multilateral institutions took a similar stance, including the IMF under Michel Camdessus.
Yet now -15 years later - the IFIs' track record falls well short of the public rhetoric of Wolfensohn, Camdessus, and their successors. It is time for a fresh assessment of how the World Bank and the IMF can become more effective advocates of anti-corruption. The World Bank needs to continue to forge new working relationships with anti-corruption civil society organizations, having them play a far larger role in monitoring the disbursement of funds, advise on how funds can best be used to guard against corruption, and assist in the use of funds to promote social accountability. In this age of global social media, citizens across the world can learn far more about corruption and its linkages to human rights abuse, violence in their societies, and security. They are demanding far-reaching governance changes; it is critical that the World Bank, the MDBs, and the IMF pay far greater attention.
Details taken from Vogl’s new book Waging War on Corruption - Inside the Movement Fighting the Abuse of Power. The views expressed here are his own.
Upcoming Event: Future Trends in Capital Flows: Opportunities and Challenges in Emerging Markets
Join the Bretton Woods Committee on April 3 from 4:30 – 6:00pm at the Citigroup Center, 601 Lexington Avenue in New York City to explore Future Trends in Capital Flows: Opportunities and Challenges in Emerging Markets.
During this panel discussion, Bretton Woods Committee members and friends will consider the changing nature of capital flows to and from emerging market economies (EME) and the implications for EME and IMF policies.
Event Speakers are:
- José Viñals, Director, Monetary and Capital Markets Department, International Monetary Fund
- José Antonio Ocampo; Professor, Columbia University; Former Chairman, Central Bank of Colombia
- Guillermo Mondino, Managing Director and Head of Emerging Markets Economics and Strategy, Citi Research
- Murat Köprülü, Head of Emerging Market Group, Mariner Investment Group
The Committee would like to thank Citigroup for hosting this event.
Upcoming Event: 30th Anniversary Annual Meeting
Join the Bretton Woods Committee for our 30th Anniversary Annual Meeting: Can the IFIs, Business, Government, and Society End Poverty in a Generation? on May 15 from 9:00am – 2:00pm at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC.
IFI leaders, Committee members, and experts from across business and civil society will consider how the global development ecosystem is changing and how to drive collaborative solutions to pressing development challenges.
Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank, Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, and Alexander B. Cummings, Jr., Executive Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of The Coca-Cola Company, are confirmed to speak. They will be joined by many top corporate, multilateral, non-profit, and government speakers, as well as Committee Co-Chairs James Wolfensohn and Bill Frenzel.
Come share your thoughts on how the IFIs, businesses, governments, and society can end poverty in a generation.
The Bretton Woods Committee
1726 M Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington DC 20036
P: 202-331-1616 F: 202-785-9423 www.brettonwoods.org
