Euphemisms and recurrent tropes in the WB and IMF Annuals 2023

is the Program Director of Policies and Budgets of Equality and Sustainable Development in the feminist Mexican organization Gender Equity: Citizenship, Work and Family. She is also the Coordinator of the Campaign of Campaigns. 

The Annual meetings of the WB and the IMF got expected and disappointing outcomes in the eye of civil society and social movements, including an underwhelming result of the discussion of the IMF governance reform, maintaining a structure that privileges the wealthy, while undermining the needs and voice of the Global South. The conversations also ratified their focus on “fiscal consolidation”, a euphemism for austerity (no matter how much they insist on selling it as something different). The WB Evolution Roadmap shows that business as usual can be presented in a new packaging, with continuous leverage of private finance as opposed to sustainable measures for the public sector, but in particular expanding agendas to include climate finance. It is sad enough that the language on climate includes the terms “a livable planet”, in which there is no real hope of collective efforts for the wellbeing of people and the planet, but rather seeking the minimal conditions for a few (elites) to survive.

The Annuals were convened in Marrakesh, with an expectant MENA and African region hopeful of real solutions to the multiple crises impacting them on the ground. Local social movements and civil society were also ready to hold deep dialogues about the pressing issues of debt, illicit financial flows, climate and environmental finance, and others, but also the new challenges posed by the political instability generated by the Israeli siege in the territory of Palestine. And yet, they met with empty seats and missed opportunities. Further from providing sensitive ears, the leadership of the WB and the IMF took us back to the most performative and colonial of times, with both Banga and Georgieva posing for photos with smiling black African children (something that they would never do in Washington DC with white American kids). When in Africa, how can these leaders miss the opportunity to eagerly show the WB and the IMF’s are not based on white supremacy and structural racist capitalism, other than by resorting to the most racist of tropes?

As sad as it is to see the status quo of the multilateral conversation on the role of financial institutions, without any accountability to human rights, gender, racial and ecological justice, the context of the Annuals provided a much fruitful forum for outside convening. The activities outside of the sessions provided several opportunities for collective articulation of social movements and civil society. No euphemisms and old trops: sheer mobilization. The “End Austerity Festival” brought about an initial discussion: how can all these actors act under a larger collective strategy of mobilization, with many plural tactics? And how can we all bring back a critical sense of radical reimagining of our undertakings in the face of the current crises? The “Reclaim our Future Conference” led us all into a step further: are we, social movements and civil society, ready to bring back a collective call from the 70’s and 80’s, that is, to call for the dismantling of the WB and the IMF? The answer was a sound YES! The next day, the “People’s Global Tribunal” arrived at the conclusion that the WB and IMF are the biggest scam of the century. And for the rest of the week the “Counter-summit” and other spaces provided much needed and cherished opportunities to strategize and plan collectively towards a timeline that is not exhausted with official calendars.

For those who attended these meetings, inside and outside, these were just a moment in which people dares to dream collectively, while the political and financial elites procure their own tools to maintain power. However, the Annuals in Africa and the MENA region provided us all a real engaging in the ground and a reality check, away from the curated spaces in DC (and the new facilities built with the obscene interest paid by Brazil and Argentina). Collectively we needed this moment to act together. Next year, we will come back with a stronger sense of collective action.