International Agencies

[Steve Clem <cclem@kent.edu>]

Part of the scope of work for this group is to explore how international
agencies might be able to encourage broader employee ownership.  Many would
contend that the policies of agencies like the IMF and the World Bank have
actually been contributing forces in the growing inequality of income and
wealth throughout the world.  However, new initiatives by this group of
international agencies seem to more fully recognize the reality that
inequality of income and wealth is one of the major characteristics of the
global economy and that such inequality must be successfully addressed
before it gets even worse.  In that sense, they seem to have more in common
with the mission of The Capital Ownership Group than they may have had just
a few short years ago.  


According to a November 1999 briefing paper by Angela Wood of the Bretton
Woods Project, both the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have
come to the conclusion that they need to put poverty reduction at the heart
of their agendas.  This was evidenced in remarks made at the German
Foundation for International Development in Berlin on March 14, 2000, by
Eduardo Aninat, Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, who noted that "The
key innovation in this new approach is to derive programs from a
comprehensive strategy for poverty reduction drawn up by governments, with
the involvement of a broad range of key stakeholders, including civil
society and the donor community."  The IMF has laid out this strategy in
the so-called Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).


Similarly, Wood has noted, "the World Bank.........has launched the
Comprehensive Development Framework and the Social Principles," which at
their core, puts poverty reduction at the top of the list.  One element of
the development framework appears to be that reforms should not be carried
out in isolation nor without a clear understanding of its effect on the
process as a whole.  Instead, the linkages between macroeconomic,
structural and social reforms should be analyzed to insure that they are
all focused on the overriding objective of poverty reduction and that they
reinforce one another.


The International Labor Organization (ILO) is also   putting out a new
agenda.  It calls its new compact the "ILO decent work agenda."  In a
speech to the staff of the World Bank, given March 2, 2000, Juan Somavia,
Director-General of the ILO, noted that "the benefits of globalization as
it is currently unfolding are not reaching enough people.............the
global economy is not creating enough jobs, and especially not enough jobs
that meet people's aspirations for a decent life..........The failure to
improve both the quantity and quality of employment worldwide is making
working families afraid of a race to the bottom......We know enough about
market fundamentals--it's time to pay attention to the fundamentals in
people's lives.......We have to design a new policy architecture that makes
poverty reduction through the creation of decent jobs a central component
of integrated policies for a people oriented globalization........


There certainly would appear to some synergies between and among the
programs of these three international agencies.  They all seem to be
interested in working with the other and with other groups or agencies
toward the reduction of poverty in the world and an improvement in the
standard and quality of living for the world population.  They may not be
singing the same song, but it certainly looks like they're singing from the
same songbook.  


While the promotion of employee ownership does not appear to be an
established part of the strategies being put forth by these three
international organizations, it would seem that they might be more open
than they have been in the past to exploring the addition of such a plank
in their poverty reduction initiatives.   Could the World Bank and the IMF
be persuaded to include at least the exploration of the feasibility of
employee ownership as a requirement for their projects?  Or at least
indicate a preference for employee ownership in some form as a component in
light of their expressed desire and recent increased emphasis on poverty
reduction?  Could they potentially work with transnational corporations to
encourage and urge or otherwise incentivize them to extend employee
ownership as a tool in the effort to reduce poverty and income inequality?