Civil society calls IMF for open consultation on upcoming Gender Strategy

In the letter, the organisations write: 'We have learnt that the IMF’s new Gender Advisor, Ratna Sahay, will be presenting the first draft of the Gender Strategy to the Board in early February, with the plan to finalise the strategy by March. Civil society organisations, trade unions, and especially feminist women’s rights organisations from across the globe have over the past years been closely involved in the IMF’s gender work, submitting joint positions on the IMF’s overall approach to gender issues and developing in-depth technical proposals for the IMF’s work in this space, for instance in relation to its recently completed Comprehensive Surveillance Review.'

'We are reaching out to ask for your support for an open and meaningful consultation process around this Gender Strategy. We have been informed that there will be a CSO meeting ahead of the February Board meeting, but without a commitment to share documentation ahead of time, or to a wider and more robust consultation process. To engage meaningfully and prepare inputs and suggestions that tie into the actual strategy effectively, it is crucial that we are given the opportunity to contribute to an actual draft or outline, and that a process be put in place for incorporating CSO recommendations. In particular, given the tight timeline now ahead of us, we are concerned that the CSO consultation will be in name only and limited to commenting on an already finalized document, or that we spend significant time preparing detailed technical proposals without knowing what the strategy covers or aims to achieve.'

 

Read the full letter here.