The IMF’s stated mission is to “foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.” However, there are those who assert that the IMF is actually a destabilizing force within the global economy, while others believe that the countries themselves are to blame for poor economic choices. Africa Action, TransAfrica Forum, and IPS’ Foreign Policy In Focus will host this provocative contest of perspectives and analysis between Rick Rowden, a long-time critic of IMF policy, and Eugene Nyambal, former senior advisor to executive directors at the Board of Directors of the IMF.

Rick Rowden, author of The Deadly Ideas Of Neoliberalism: How The IMF Has Undermined Public Health And The Fight Against AIDS “confronts and challenges the IMF and questions its specific definition of macro-economic stability” – Mike Podmore

Eugene Nyambal, also a former Senior Strategy Officer for Latin America at the International Finance Corporation is the author of Creating Prosperity in Africa: Ten Keys to Get Out of Poverty. Frannie A. Leautier, Vice President of World Bank Institute says Nyambal’s book “is an honest account written from a perspective of deep knowledge about the continent but embedded in pragmatism that comes from experience of development from different perspectives.”