International Financial Institutions

Oxfam International's Washington, DC office focuses on the International Financial Institutions, primarily the World Bank Group (WBG) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The key objective is influencing these organizations to provide more and better-quality financing to help poor countries overcome poverty, fight inequality and secure food justice in a resource constrained world.

The office aims to persuade the WBG and the IMF to work towards ensuring universal access to high-quality, free public services (particularly health and education); to fight effectively against climate change; to promote progressive fiscal policy including fairer tax systems; and to ensure better investment in agriculture. We are also following very closely the work of the International Financial Corporation (the IFC), the World Bank's private sector arm, helping communities to raise complaints through its accountability mechanisms (the CAO), and pushing for systemic changes within the institution to ensure it does not harm people and has a stronger development impact.  

We work to promote more participatory, transparent and accountable decision-making in these public institutions, from the country level up to the World Bank and IMF Boards. Recent work has focused on the role of economic policy conditions attached to the institutions' loans, for example.

Follow us on our blog on International Financial Institutions.

Check out our letters and submissions to the World Bank Group (WBG) and International Monetary Fund (IMF).