Abstract
The Bretton Woods Financial Institutions (BWFI), established by the 1944 Bretton Woods Agreement (BWA), form a complementary web of international financial organizations composed of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank Group (WBG) and regional development banks (RDB). They have the collective aim of the carrying of Bretton Woods spirit, by actualizing the promotion of economic development of their respective membership and the fight against poverty in suffering environments. They play a strategic global financial intermediation role within the international financial architecture. Despite their close links with the United Nations (UN) system, BWFIs are independent from the UN in terms of decision-making processes, sources of funding, and administration and budget. All Bretton Woods institutions are, however, submitted to the United Nations Security Council’s agreed-upon guidelines, but they are not subjected to the United Nations General Assembly nor to one of its agencies’ decisions.
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Notes
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This is the joint declaration of President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill (August 14, 1941) resulting from a conference at sea that set forth the peace aims of their governments for the period following World War II. (Dictionary.com).
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“The SDR is a reserve asset created by the IMF and allocated to participating members in proportion to their IMF quotas to meet a long-term global need to supplement existing reserve assets. […]. The SDR is not a currency, nor is it a liability of the IMF; instead, it serves primarily as a potential claim on freely usable currencies” (IMF Financial Information 2016a).
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Before the payments for quota increase under the Fourteenth Review in February 2016, the NAB (New Arrangements to Borrow) was rolled back from SDR 370 billion to SDR 182 billion.
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Sustained medium- to long-term engagement in case of protracted balance of payments problems (IMF).
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Financing for low-income countries with actual or potential short-term balance of payments and adjustment needs (IMF).
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Rapid unconditional financial support as a single up-front payout for low-income countries facing urgent balance of payments needs (IMF).
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- 13.
The Final IDA17 Replenishment Meeting took place in Moscow, Russia in December, 2013. The IDA18 replenishment is the largest in the IDA’s 56-year history and heralds a significant step change in its policy and financing framework (World Bank n.d.-c, IDA 18).
- 14.
In the fiscal year ending June 30, 2017, the IDA commitments totalled $19.5 billion, of which 17% was provided on grant terms. New commitments in FY17 comprised 261 new operations. Since 1960, the IDA has provided $345 billion for investments in 113 countries. Annual commitments have increased steadily and averaged about $18 billion over the last 3 years (World Bank n.d.-d, what is IDA?).
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Naciri, A. (2018). Bretton Woods Institutions Within the International Financial Architecture for Development. In: The Governance Structures of the Bretton Woods Financial Institutions. SpringerBriefs in Economics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97906-9_3
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