United Nations, World Bank and IMF in need of urgent reforms, says Sitharaman

All these organizations will have to look at reforming themselves, she said here at Harvard Kennedy School on Tuesday. During the conversation with Professor at Harvard University Lawrence Summers at the talk organized by the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Sitharaman said while reforms in countries are happening in different stages, these global institutions have remained the way they have been for the last several decades .

Many of them now no longer speak for countries whose issues have remained unattended to for decades together, whether it is on trade, security, monetary framework, and funding development, she stated.

There is a desperate need for all these institutions to be more transparent, represent and speak for countries that don’t get adequate representation; and therefore I would think that is something that has to happen immediately.

When these institutions become more representative, she said there would be more equitable distribution of resources, more concern for equitable development for growth. This whole dialogue which used to happen — north-south — looked as if it’s moving towards irrelevance.

But the issues of the north-south still remain. Development has not reached many parts of Africa, many parts of the small Pacific islands. Many parts of those countries, even within countries, where there is differentiated development. So I think that’s what would have happened if only this reform agenda had been taken up by these institutions, she said.