As the sole remaining targets of the West's economic expansion, the Southern nations have the same sort of leverage Black folks in Montgomery had during the bus boycott. Only it takes longer for a national economy to feel the pain than it took for Miz Daisy to realize she couldn't live without clean clothes or Mr. Gilmore to remember most of his customers were those very darkies he despised.

Complaint of note:

Decision-making in the two financial bodies is far removed from the principle of one country-one vote.

The 46 sub-Saharan African countries, for example, have only two executive directors representing them at the World Bank and IMF, while eight northern nations have a single executive director each.

Directors from countries of the Group of Seven (G7) most industrialised nations now control more than 60 per cent of votes at the bank and fund, while the U.S. administration has veto power over any extraordinary vote.

The bank and IMF each have 184 board members from developed and developing countries and 24 members who represent countries or groups of nations.

That system has deprived more populous nations like India and China, which combined represent more than 2.3 billion people of the world's six billion people, of an influential say while giving countries like the United Kingdom, France and the United States greater clout.

WASHINGTON, Apr 24 (IPS) - As several thousand people protested outside the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) here Saturday, a coalition of developing countries also complained loudly about the democracy deficit at the two institutions.

"We are greatly disappointed by the lack of visible progress in respect of voice and participation and voting power of developing countries in the two Bretton Woods institutions," Sudanese Finance Minister al-Zubeir Ahmed al-Hassan told reporters as he read a statement on behalf of African countries.

Others said they were alarmed at how the two organisations responded to developing countries' calls for democracy in the IMF and World Bank.

"There is also the issue of principle," Ewart Williams, governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, told reporters.

"We are either universal institutions or we are not. You cannot on the one hand say this is a participatory institution, that democracy should be the order of the day, that transparency and accountability should be the order of the day, and then on the other hand say that there should be sacred cows."
Ewart was reading from a statement by finance and economy ministers from the Group of 24 (G24), which operates as an association of minority shareholders in the IMF and Bank. It said, ''the under-representation of developing countries in the decision-making processes of these institutions should be seriously and promptly addressed".

The ministers called for a more equitable form of representation, and said the executive boards of the IMF and the World Bank should appoint an expert group to work on the issue and produce a report within six months.

Decision-making in the two financial bodies is far removed from the principle of one country-one vote.

The 46 sub-Saharan African countries, for example, have only two executive directors representing them at the World Bank and IMF, while eight northern nations have a single executive director each.

Directors from countries of the Group of Seven (G7) most industrialised nations now control more than 60 per cent of votes at the bank and fund, while the U.S. administration has veto power over any extraordinary vote.

The bank and IMF each have 184 board members from developed and developing countries and 24 members who represent countries or groups of nations.

That system has deprived more populous nations like India and China, which combined represent more than 2.3 billion people of the world's six billion people, of an influential say while giving countries like the United Kingdom, France and the United States greater clout.

But officials from the two bodies and from the G7 have argued that the poverty reduction strategy papers -- policy documents that borrowing countries must prepare before they can qualify for loans -- already give borrowers "a voice in bank-fund assistance programmes in their countries".

The calls for reform come as the World Bank and IMF hold their bi-annual spring meetings, which coincide this year with their 60th anniversary. The Washington-based organisations were founded in July 1944 at Bretton Woods in the U.S. state of New Hampshire.

Their critics have also been meeting here all week, distributing 'unhappy' birthday cards and holding demonstrations. Protesters on Saturday banged on pots and pans outside the IMF and bank buildings in downtown Washington, imitating past protests in Argentina.

Saturday's demand also come amid renewed accusations that the selection process for the top jobs within the financial bodies' is opaque and non-democratic.

The IMF is set to decide on a new candidate to replace Horst Koehler, who resigned Mar. 3 after being nominated for the German presidency.

Developing countries and civil society groups have argued the selection process gives rich nations a monopoly on nominating and selecting the leaders of the two institutions.

Traditionally, a European has led the IMF while the World Bank presidency is given to an American.

"Ministers are particularly concerned that the selection process for the managing director of the IMF continues to fall far short of the standards of good governance, transparency and inclusiveness widely advocated by the IMF and the World Bank in their relations with member countries," said the G24 statement.

"This is inimical to the legitimacy, accountability and credibility of the institutions."

The strongly worded statement demanded an open and transparent selection process to "attract the best candidates regardless of nationality".

That, added the group, would simply follow recommendations made in April 2001 by a World Bank-IMF joint working group on how to choose the managing director.

But although the two organisations' executive boards adopted the recommendations as guidance for the future, they were never implemented.

The European Union has already settled on a candidate, former Spanish finance minister Rodrigo Rato, to head the IMF. Rato, who served as a minister in the conservative government of former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, was scheduled to arrive in Washington on Sunday.

He must be officially named to the post by the IMF executive committee.

The nomination debate is likely be repeated next year, when World Bank President James Wolfensohn is due to end his second term in office.