From poverty to power - Oxfam-Québec

THE INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL SYSTEMTHE WORLD BANK AND THE INTERNATIONALMONETARY FUNDIn 2005, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)told the government of the impoverished West African nation of Malithat it would have to privatise its energy companies and its majorexport sector, cotton, if it expected to see any loans or credits. Mali’sPresident Amadou Toumani Touré went to Washington to plead hiscountry’s case, but later could only lament: ‘People who have neverseen cotton come to give us lessons on cotton…No one can respect theconditionalities of certain donors. They are so complicated that theythemselves have difficulty getting us to understand them. This is not apartnership. This is a master relating to his student.’ 1The ensuing liberalisation of the cotton sector left Malian cottonfarmers exposed to world cotton markets, where prices are artificiallysuppressed by massive US and EU subsidies, and they received 20 percent less for their cotton in 2005 than in the previous year. Combinedwith unfavourable exchange rates, rising input prices, and late rains in2007,the result has been devastating,with thousands of farmers runningup unpayable debts and some leaving cotton farming altogether.Production in 2007–08 collapsed to half its previous level. 2The acronyms of faceless international organisations do not usuallystart riots, but the three letters IMF provoke explosive reactions.295