Response to the International Parliamentarians’ Petition for Democratic Oversight of the IMF and World Bank

From the DFID"I agree that developing countries, and their parliaments, need to take their own decisions on economic policies for poverty reduction. Increasing countries' independence on policy-making is also important because there has been too much emphasis in the past on 'one size fits all' approaches to issues like privatisation and trade liberalisation. Sometimes these reforms work for the poor. But sometimes they don't. So I agree that the final decision on whether to undertake them must rest on the evidence, and with developing countries themselves. That is why we are seeking to promote a much greater use of poverty and social impact analyses (PSIA), both bilaterally and in the International Financial Institutions.

We have recently undertaken a major review of our approach to conditionality. In September, during the World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington, I launched a consultation paper on conditionality (343kb) , produced jointly between DFID, HM Treasury and the Foreign Office. I also argued successfully that the World Bank should undertake a review of its own approach to conditionality, which will report back next year. I wrote to Jim Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, to underline the importance that the UK attaches to this review starting from first principles and resulting in changes to how the Bank works with partner countries and aligns itself better with countries' own plans. "