CIVIL SOCIETY ADVOCACY LETTER ON THE IMF's Exogenous Shocks Facility

Civil society letter highlights key advocacy points on the IMF's response to global food crisis

Civil society advocacy letter, submitted on 29 August, preceding the IMF Executive Board's discussion on the Exogenous Shocks Facility (ESF), urges three central advocacy points: (1) The ESF’s high-access component should not be attached to any policy conditionality in its recent modifications and should focus on providing rapid, short-term, and concessional cash transfers to address the immediate macroeconomic impacts of external shocks; (2) The ESF should be made more concessional than the PRGF in light of the fact that it is being used by countries that are in crisis. The ESF should be available to countries experiencing either balance of payments or budgetary problems, and with open access limits decided by the country authorities requesting the ESF; and, (3) Transparency in the process by which the ESF has been modified, needs to be dramatically improved.