Oxfam reaction to speeches from World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, Spring Meetings 2015

Reacting to Jim Kim's speech, Head of Oxfam International’s Washington office, Nicolas Mombrial said:

“Today we have seen a worrying glimpse of the old World Bank focusing only on growth, structural reform and opening the gates to the private sector. 

“While we recognize that Jim Yong Kim has a wider plan to overcome poverty, he has yet again failed to profile his commitment to tackling climate change and inequality as central to his aim in eradicating poverty by 2030. 

“We agree that the lack of growth in developing countries is bad news for pulling the almost billion people out of poverty. But reducing these key elements to mere footnotes misses an opportunity to harness the potential of this important year for development.”

On international taxation, Head of Oxfam International’s Washington office, Nicolas Mombrial said: 

“In this critical year for international tax reform, it is disappointing that neither Jim Yong Kim nor Christine Lagarde have recognized the potential of untapped tax revenues for financing the new sustainable development goals and tackling inequality. 

“Developing countries lose $100 billion annually to corporate dodging, enough for every child in the world to go to school four times over, yet the IMF and the World Bank have failed to use this opportunity to breathe life into global action to overhaul flawed international tax systems.”