Every year the IMF and World Bank host a week of policy discussions and events on national and global macro-economic issues. The “Spring Meetings”, as this week is called, traditionally take place in April and are anchored around the joint meetings of the Boards of Governors of the two institutions, and the meetings of the IMFC and Development Committee. The gatherings take place in Washington DC, where the institutions are headquartered.
The IMF is a key part of the international financial architecture and wields huge influence over the domestic economic policies of all countries at all levels of development, and particularly for impoverished countries in the global south. The IMF has a huge bearing on how able the Global South will be to finance and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, therefore it is critical for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to contribute their voices to its work.
The Spring Meetings gather together many development finance actors, and a Civil Society Policy Forum (CSPF) was organised in line with the main agenda, attracting CSO representatives from around the world. The CSPF featured CSO side events on development finance issues on three broad thematic areas:
- Challenges to the economy
- Engaging communities
- Investing in human capital
Under the first theme “Challenges to the economy”, the Global Alliance for Tax Justice successfully held a side event titled: “Taxes, taxes, taxes: Shifting the IFIs narrative to gender just tax policies”, in collaboration with Bretton Woods Project, Christian Aid and the Tax Justice Network.
The session was moderated by Dereje Alemayehu, GATJ’s Executive Coordinator and the Speakers included:
- Kathleen Lahey, Professor and Queen’s National Scholar, Faculty of Law, Queen’s University
- Matti Kohonen, Principal Advisory – Private Sector, Christian Aid
- Soren Ambrose, Policy Advisor – Fiscal Justice, ActionAid International
- Serena Abi Khalil, Research and Programme Officer, Arab NGO Network for Development
The session was livestreamed on GATJ’s Facebook page where you can assist it to its full extent anytime.
The Bretton Woods Project also shares a comprehensive summary of the event on its blog.
