Solutions to Alleviating Poverty - Essay Example

While the membership of the IMF comprises all kinds of nations - the developed, developing and the under-developed, the IMF has often been accused of favoring the developed nations from where it gets its funds. The developing and under-developed worlds are often discriminated against, when it comes to financial assistance, protectionism, transfer of technology et al. The voting system in the IMF is a testimony to the fact that discriminatory policies are indeed the order of the day, in the IMF.

The IMF has a loan-lending role, wherein loans for a specific period are provided to countries. The IMF has come under criticism for this aspect. The loan-lending programmes often employ a conditionality clause, wherein countries have to adhere to certain attested clauses when borrowing money from the IMF. It has been alleged that the IMF includes clauses that help a dominant country, in most instances, the US, rule the roost. Clauses related to structural adjustments have been very popular, wherein the nature of the government and the manner in which it works is thoroughly controlled.

It has also been seen that the debt percentage of those countries that have borrowed funds from the IMF has gone up considerably. The South-Asian country of Bangladesh received its independence about 25 years ago. At a time when it was still grappling with the after-effects of independence and famine, the Grameen Bank came as a new ray of hope. The Grameen Bank, initialized by Professor Mohammed Yunus, has been functional in the area of micro-credit. The vision is to create a poverty-free world.

The Bank works at grass-root levels and mainly attempts to lend money to women. In fact, 97% of the borrowers at the bank, are women.