Impact of Globalisation on Global Poverty: The Roles of the IMF, the World Bank and the WTO

Abstract

Today there is no greater challenge facing humanity than that of global poverty in thewake of over a decade of globalisation. The search for global solutions to the povertyhas recently been the focal point of the UN General Assembly’s 2005 WorldSummit. The Summit, an important milestone in UN history, brought together worldleaders who pledged continuing support for the Millennium Development Goalsaiming at eradicating extreme poverty and hunger as their highest priority. No doubt,globalisation has brought in new opportunities for developing countries, includinggreater access to the market of developed countries. As a result of globalisation, thecountries of Southeast Asia have successfully built sustainable and growingeconomies which have helped elevate millions of people out of poverty. Butglobalisation has been associated with new challenges like global poverty andinequality across and within least developed countries. As illustrated in Table 1below, despite development aid and loans provided by the World Bank and theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF), which are conditional on free market policiessuch as trade liberalisation and privatization, the situation in sub-Saharan Africa isstill particularly critical and continues to worsen.