Feminist Reflections on the 2025 IMF–World Bank Annual Meetings: Resisting Austerity, Reclaiming Justice
By Julia Gerlo, Fundación Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (FARN), Argentina
I could start by saying, “Another failure for this meeting.” That phrase necessarily signals a barrier — and invites us, as feminist, social, and environmental movements, to ask why our work, our struggles, and the visions of the world we wish to build are still not reflected in these global spaces. Yet I say this while holding onto the energy, the South–South exchanges, and the conviction that many civil society organizations, academics, and activists continue to push for a better — or entirely new — system.
The current right-wing wave will eventually pass. But is it enough that the winds change? Eighty years after the creation of the Bretton Woods institutions, what we see is that the status quo must not pass: an international financial architecture that remains reluctant to change, because any real transformation would necessarily require a reordering of power and resources. Instead, this architecture continues to deepen inequalities, privatize essential services, and shift the costs of austerity onto women and marginalized communities.
The problem remains the same. Coming from Argentina, I have seen how the weight of debt has constrained my country — and how the same austerity recipes are being applied in Egypt, Kenya, and beyond. The IMF’s latest World Economic Outlook report warned of the alarming rise in global public debt. In emerging and developing economies, debt is expected to reach 82% of GDP by 2030, compared to just under 70% in 2024. This trajectory clearly undermines countries in the Global South’s ability to advance sustainable development and social justice.
The IMF continues to urge governments to implement fiscal adjustments, prioritize “productive” spending, and reform tax systems. In Argentina, the latest agreement with the Fund provides clear evidence of what this means in practice: between 2023 and 2025, social spending fell by 17% in real terms, reaching its lowest level since 2010. Environmental programs were also dismantled — forest conservation funds were cut by 80%, renewable energy promotion by more than two-thirds, and fire management capacity by over 35%.
At the same time, during these meetings, the merging of gender and climate units within both the U.S. Treasury Department and the IMF signals a worrying reduction in attention to these agendas. Integrating gender and climate issues into broader macroeconomic frameworks risks diluting their specific focus — limiting the ability to address the differentiated challenges faced by vulnerable communities, especially in the Global South. This decision reflects a troubling trend that weakens equity and marks a step backward in efforts to reform the international financial architecture.
The shrinking of dedicated resources and institutional focus on gender and environment undermines the implementation of policies essential for justice. These cuts disproportionately affect women and vulnerable populations, compounding the gendered and social consequences of fiscal austerity.
Faced with this scenario, feminist and environmental movements across the Global South continue to raise the same urgent question: who benefits from austerity, and who pays the price? What we see today is not merely an economic crisis, but a profound systemic one — a crisis that limits our collective capacity to envision and build economies centered on care, redistribution, and ecological and planetary health in a world intertwined with crises of climate and inequality.
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