13 Proposing IMF Reforms for Low‐Income Countries

AbstractThis chapter surveys recent IMF reform proposals emanating from academia, policy networks, think-tanks, member states, and even within the IMF. It argues that these IMF reform proposals are overly focused on governance reforms and do not adequately cover substantive policy changes. Low income countries would better gain from IMF reforms that addressed substantive policy issues; issues that debtors had long pursued about the efficacy, application, and fundamentals of Fund advice. These functional reform issues have been sidelined in current Fund reform proposals because the debate has been dominated by state officials, primarily from the emerging market economies, who are concerned with increasing their relative power in IMF decision-making. The chapter suggests internal IMF reforms, organizational and bureaucratic changes, that will help meet the needs of LICs.