International Organizations

According to the official website of International Monetary Fund, It is is an “organization that works to foster global monetary cooperation, secure the financial stability of the world, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.” International Monetary Fund is an organization that is responsible for the stability of international exchange rates through neo-liberalism, and assistance of the reconstruction of payment system in the world. International Monetary Fund runs the financial system globally. It manages it by participating in policies of its members, with an impact on the exchange rate and payment balances in a macroeconomic perspective. It offers aid, loans, relief, and debt mainly to poorer countries. International Monetary Fund has received heavy criticisms despite its huge influence in international development and affairs. It has received criticisms for their handling of the financial contagion globally and the proposals they have provided that would defend the world from future crises.

“When the International Monetary Fund arrives in a country, they are interested in only one thing. How do we make sure the banks and financial institutions are paid?... It is the International Monetary Fund that keeps the financial speculators in business. They’re not interested in development, or what helps a country to get out of poverty.” (Stiglitz, 2002)

Conditionalities have become the basis of international financial institutions in giving financial aids, and the International Monetary Fund practices this. Conditioanalities have been claimed to be a precondition for loans given by the International Monetary Fund by looking at the economic performances of countries. Structural Adjustment Programs is also linked to giving financial aids, but this does not lead to development but rather it increases the poverty in beneficiary countries. The conditionalities on where the countries have to follow in order to receive loans involve: Reduced government borrowing, where taxes are high and spending is low; Higher interest rates, that would help stabilize the country; Allow firms that are failing to experience bankruptcy; Structural adjustment programs, such as privatization, deregulation, reduction of bureaucracy, which make the situations worse.

International Monetary Fund also practices the act of decreasing public spending while increasing taxes even when there is a weak economy, because the increase in taxes and decrease in spending would bring balanced budgets and reduced budget deficits, even if lower corporate taxes are recommended to countries. But according to Joseph Stigitz, he does no approve of this because the purpose of the fund will no longer be effective. Since the funds were designed to increase the supply of money and credit for countries. Also Stiglitz also argued that the IMF was “not participating in a conspiracy, but it was reflecting the interests and ideology of the Western financial community.”

International Monetary Fund has failed to understand the countries’ dynamics when they removed the controls of the Central bank over the capital flows. Because this resolution made it easier for politicians to abuse their power in the office by getting the resources for personal gain and also to transfer money out of the system to their personal bank accounts. Privatization was also a wrong move for International monetary Fund, because these free market policies do not fit to all of the country. Privatization can generate private monopolies, which manipulates consumers. Privatization was not the only problem, but also International Monetary Fund’s being too interventionist. They think that efforts to change exchange rates would just lead to bigger problems, so they suggested to let the capital markets operate freely without intervention from the government. And International Monetary Fund has been imposing policies without consulting the countries affected. International Monetary Fund was failing to improve the welfare of developing countries. It does not give the best policy suitable for these countries.

Stiglitz argues that developing economies are not at all developing, and it is the International Monetary Fund’s fault because IMF has provided nothing but the lack of information for people who should make the decisions, inadequate or missing markets for important transactions, and absent or flawed institutions. Advances in economic theory are now in existence; these have proven that in developing countries, even if there is imperfection in information and there is an incomplete market, invisible hands work perfectly. Well-chosen interventions by the government can improve the output. When companies and individuals buy products that are less than what the country’s economy can provide or produce, it is possible for the government to fight recessions and depressions by spurring the demand for goods and services through the expansion of monetary and fiscal policies and regulating banks and other financial institutions. It is also possible to use tax policies to transforms investments into more productive industries and produce new policies regarding trade that would allow industries to improve and compete at an international level.

International Monetary Fund has done great damage to the policies in terms of economics by commending that countries must follow what they want in order to receive and qualify for loans from banks, private-sector, and the International Monetary Fund itself. Its government and officials have disregarded the effects of information that are incomplete, markets that are insufficient, and institutions that are impractical. These are characteristic of a newly developing country but the International Monetary Fund’s official are not minding it because they focus more on policies that imitate economic textbooks instead of making their own sense for these developing countries. These policies followed by International Monetary Fund have not been successful and have given drastic results for developing countries that followed them.

International Monetary Fund let developed countries have control over the developing countries due to the capitalistic form of the world economy, where their professional staffs are being trained according to western beliefs and the effectiveness of policies that are market-oriented due to western bias. The organization also worked on incorrect assumptions like all imbalance payments were triggered internally. They also did not distinguished adequately external causes from internal causes for imbalance payments, which led to the payment shortages because of their changes in terms of trade. They also did not take into consideration that developing countries should be allowed more time in adjusting their monetary policies, and these adjustments are dissimilar from programs related to demand-management. The effects of the policies made by International Monetary Fund were not helping in development, or it is anti-developmental. The effects of their programs led to losses of employment and good output in economies where low income and high unemployment are present. International Monetary Fund has provided harsh policy conditions, where members are refused loans due to the absence of the conditionalities provide and that needed to be followed in order to receive loans. This made the economy of rejected countries worse. And policies regarding funds of International Monetary Funds lack a clear reasoning for its policies. Its policies were unclear due to clashing opinions and rivalries in departments while dealing with countries with different economic situations.

World Bank has two contradictory roles. One is that it is a political organization and the other is that it is a practical organization. In order to achieve its role as a political organization, the World Bank must meet the demands of donor and governments that are borrowing, capital markets, and other organizations, while as a practical organization, the World Bank must be neutral in distributing aid, technical assistance, and loans. The World Bank has adopted policies that would let the organization oblige to the private capital markets and countries that donate, these policies would show that poverty is best improved with the implementation of market policies.

World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s criticisms contains a lot of issues but these issues are generally concerned about the approaches the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have made in preparing their policies and the way they administered. These approaches include their control and their policy implementation, socially and economically and its impact on the beneficiary countries, that avail the financial assistance from these institutions. The conditionalities proposed by these two organizations are the most concerning part of their decisions. They have attached conditionalities based on the Washington Consensus, which focuses on liberalization of financial sector, and trade and investment. These recommendations made by World Bank and International Monetary Fund have not resolve any economic problems in the countries.

These conditionalities may result into the loss of government’s control over its economy, as the International Monetary Fund is controlling policies. Concerns about the types of development projects are being funded by the World Bank are raised. Many infrastructures that have been financed by the World Bank have provided social and environmental problems, and the populations of those areas have become affected. This raised ethical issues against World Bank for funding such projects. The role of World Bank against climate change architecture has been caught in controversy. Others see World Bank as a unit for climate finance because of its conditionalities and advisory attached to its loans. And the partnership of World Bank with private sector may weaken the role of the state to be the primary provider of services and goods, like education and healthcare to the people. This may result in underperformance of services in countries in badly need of those.

Institution in this field is viewed as a formal organization. Formal organizations like bureaucracies, and rules that govern behavior. Institutions help shape interests and influence the goals and outlooks people in a country. It helps us understand why results are more likely than others than this, and how it is possible for such results to happen. Institutions is an important factor for development experts because it shows the paths and the different repercussions of growth.

Institutions create social order and cooperation, which governs the behavior of individuals within a country. Identified with social purpose, institutions surpass individuals and intentions with the enforcing set of governing rules. Institutions are important to consider because it enables to control the economy and persuade millions to cooperate in a specific plan of action. It can make individuals cooperate in production and trade, some in other aspects. And it is able to persuade economists to talk about the money circulating in the system.

Institutions are important because it can be applied to the behavior patterns of the people, which is important in making policies. Institutions are concern for the mechanism for rule-making and enforcement. Whit institutions, situations like what happened to World Bank would be prevented. Like when they provided funds to infrastructures that cause social and environmental problems by affecting the population.

There are different kinds of institutions that can be seen in different type of countries. So International Organizations, especially World Bank and International Monetary Fund cannot use the cookie-cutter approach. Just like what happened in the results of globalization. Globalization was effective in some countries but disastrous in most. This is a sample of cookie-cutter approach where the organizations used the same design, plan, and innovation to these different countries, because it would save time and money, but this approach should not be tolerated because in order to have a significant and effective program and projects different institutions must be studied one by one before making a decision that would change the whole system.

Let's go look into others development

Egypt has the most number of people in the Arab world and has the second most number of people on the African content. Regions in Egypt such as Cairo and Alexandria are among the world’s most densely populated because eighty million Egyptians live there. It contains 3,280 persons per square mile compared to 200 persons per square mile for the country.  Communities tend to live in the urban area despite the government’s attempt to promote living in the rural areas. The proportion of population in the rural area is decreasing as they move to cities to look for higher standards of living and employment. Egypt’s population has been growing rapidly. As population grows, the need for businesses and housing lands rises, and the land used for agriculture falls, which makes Egypt produce less of its own natural resources.  

There are many underlying causes of underdevelopment. It differs in every country. Egypt’s underlying causes for its under development are its legal origins and lack of judicial checks and balances. Egypt is the second most financially developed country in the 1913. It is a French civil law country.  French civil law developed by using the state power to alter property rights. In a French civil law country, there is a high rate of government ownership, which becomes an important cause of inefficiency, as the government controls the rules and properties, this might eventually lead to corruption and high unemployment rate of a country that follows it. The government’s attempt to control and keep the power contributes to the crisis in Egypt, such as, financial and food crisis. The government’s desperate attempts to hold on to power cost its credibility and its legitimacy. Lack of judicial checks and balances are present in Egypt. Judicial checks and balances, gives the right to a Supreme or a Constitutional court to limit selfish efforts of governments. Constitutional review is used to secure the political and human rights as well as the preservation of democracy. But in Egypt, there were a big percentage of human rights violation, especially human rights violation that is done by the administration or the people in power. There should be also a preservation of democracy if there is no lack in judicial checks and balances, but in Egypt. Democracy is abused. It was not felt by the people because of the rule of President Mubarak. He concentrated all his power on his hands and did what he think the best for his country but never listened to what the people wanted. And there should be a supreme court that would limit the selfish acts of government in abusing the power given to them. But the supreme court has not enough control or say in the country. Civil law countries, such as, Egypt, has not adopted the idea of judicial independence. Judges remained subordinate to President Mubarak and his administration. . Independent judges are not guarantors of freedom in Egypt. In a French civil law country, there is a lower security of property rights and a higher government ownership. Levels of political freedom are significantly different between civil law countries and common law countries. Lower levels of political freedom are present in common law countries compared to civil law countries, French legal origin countries and lower levels of political freedom present. Egypt does not have a high level of economic freedom compared to a country, that is with German and Scandinavian legal origins.

Egypt has been under a one-party political system for three decades. The control of its president since 1981, President Mubarak, over Egypt may have caused its underdevelopment. Because of his too much control over his position, his repression over his people may start to create a civil war.

The Ottoman controlled Egypt for 365 years. The commander of dependent troops of the Ottoman turks, Mohammed Ali, was appointed to found Egypt. He eagerly ordered to westernize the capital city of Egypt, Cairo, by constructing a city that is European-like. British forces started a revolt against the Ottoman empire, making it the start of the occupation of the British empire of the Egypt. British influence dominated Egyptian’s reforms, such as, its fiscal, administrative, and governmental reforms.  

Greater political freedom and new economic policy were introduced to Egypt by Sadat. These loosen up the control of the Egyptian government over its economy and investments. Sadat legally banned the use of torture in Egypt, the government officials that are accused of criminal actions were brought to trial. He also expanded the political participation in 1970s but was abandoned because of the violence resulting from the discontent of his ruling, which led to the experience of repression of Egypt. President Sadat was assassinated and his vice president, the air force commander during the October 1973 war, Hosni Mubarak was elected as the President of Egypt. The Egyptian constitution has an authority, which is vested upon the elected president. The president can appoint one or more vice presidents, a prime minister, and a cabinet. The president has six years to rule the country. There are 454 members of the People’s Assembly, the legislative body of Egypt. The president appoints 10 of the members while 444 of them are elected. There is a legislation that has been passed in 2009 states the addition new seats set aside for women alone. 50% of the assembly seats in Egyptian constitution are reserved for workers and peasants. The assembly’s term run for 5 years but can be dissolved earlier by the president. There are 264 members in a consultative council, the president appointed 88 of them while the other 176 members are elected and has a 6-year term but elections of the consultative council are done every 3 years. Authority is also exercised below the national level. It is exercised through the appointment of the central government and elected local councils to the positions of governors and mayors. Opposition party have the right to make their own public views and represent their followers, but even though they have the right to have their own views, the power is still concentrated on the president and the institutions of the political system. There are 21 parties present in Egypt, excluding the National Democratic party. The non-governmental organizations’ political process and freedom of expression have restrictions.

For the first time since 1952, Egypt experienced a progress in the political system in 2005, President Mubarak wanted to consolidate efforts for more freedom and democracy, therefore, he had allowed multi-candidate elections, where parties are allowed to fight against the administration, which let the Egyptians to choose a leader other than from Mubarak. However, he had put restrictions to the new law, which prevented the politicians who run against Mubarak from being popular, which made it easy for President Mubarak to win the 2005 elections with 88% of the voters’ population voted for him. When elected, President Mubarak introduced institutions that would increase his power as a president and he banned political parties based on race, ethnicity, and religion. Independence and principles of due process are increased and judicial review had greater respect under the Mubarak government. Government interference was accused to Mubarak and his supporters by election observers. They said that Mubarak and his supporters interfered through vote rigging, police brutality, fraud, and violence against the opposition. After the elections, President Mubarak imprisoned Ayman Nour, his runner-up in the presidential elections in 2005, but the U.S Government questioned the Egypt’s commitment to freedom, democracy, and the rule of law, after the imprisonment of Ayman Nour. Egyptians are doubtful with the democracy of Egypt and the rules of elections. There were 32 million registered voters out of the more than 72 million population of Egypt, but only less than of 25% of the 32 million voting population participated in the Presidential elections. Human Rights of Egypt are considered poor by several local and international human rights organizations. President Mubarak suppressed the activists of democracy, who challenged his rule. There are many human rights violation that can be seen in Egypt. Routine torture, arbitrary detentions, and trials of the military and security courts were some of the most serious violation that the Egyptians experienced. Critics also said that Egypt was noted for putting the women at a disadvantage by the discriminatory personal status laws that governs marriage, inheritance, and custody. And for placing restrictions on major construction of Christian churches, even though the restrictions regarding the church building and worshiping have been relieved.

Despite President Mubarak’s political autocracy, he has provided a level of peace and a level of stability in Egypt. President Mubarak has maintained peace with Israel, which Egypt fought wars for 25 years. He as also become a close supporter of the United States. He also enforced Muslim society and made Coptic Christian minority safe from growing attacks. Because of President Mubarak, Egypt has been stable and it stood as a force of stability.

Egypt is now experiencing a leaderless revolution. There is a pushing going on for a role in transitional government. No one knows ho to end this unrest in Egypt. President Mubarak promised that he would not run for this year’s presidential elections, but the people still insists that he should leave his position now.

Egypt is the second on the list of who receives most U.S foreign aid. It receives $2  billion annually, since 1979. U.S aid to Egypt is devoted on the strengthening of military, economic assistance, and security.

There are strong ties between the United States and Egypt, for they have mutual interests in peace in the Middle East, and the stability of its economy and security.

U.S military’s aid to Egypt totals to $1.3 billion annually but even with this amount, U.S cannot strengthen Egypt military power, for it is against the declared objective of the United States of ensuring Israeli’s supremacy and security over other Arab countries.

The given aid to Egypt by the United States enable private sectors to import goods and purchase military goods from the United State, as stated in the U.S. aid conditions to ensure that the given aid would return back to the United States by importing American products and that Egypt should give less competitive prices for American companies.

The aid benefits the military and the government of Egypt. The aid helps the military by modernizing its armed forces and its military equipment. According to the State Department, Egypt has received equipment such as fighter jets, armored personnel carriers, helicopters, missile, tanks, and surveillance aircraft. Egypt either purchased the equipment from the U.S contractors or from the U.S military. The Egyptian military holds the ultimate key to stability, security, and peaceful democracy.

Egypt’s economic aid from the United States has declined but it still receives over hundreds of millions. United States had given $57 million to the Egypt government to fund for the project that would increase the jobs and incomes to the country. But the participants did not meet the planned number of increase in jobs. In 2009, United States had given $151 million to fund the project that would modernize the financial sector of Egypt. The project was successful and the country experienced growth in its finance market throughout the duration of the project. It was criticized that the U.S government was not focusing on the problems of growing poverty and unemployment rate but focused more on the “programs valued for strict ideological reasons”.

United States had given $24 million to fund the Egypt’s NGO to promote good governance through democracy. But due to the lack of cooperation and participation of the Egypt’s government, the program had limited impact, especially, because for the Egyptian government, NGOs’ were too aggressive. They also asked the United States to stop funding organizations that are not properly registered as NGOs. According to a report in 2007, Mubarak was described as “deeply skeptical of the US role in democracy promotion.”

Egypt’s stability was fragile and still remains fragile because of the political reforms that had been with them for the past three decades, which is widely described as disastrous. It is important to look at the political system of the most populous country in the Arab world, which is Egypt. Because it shows the reality of the one-party political systems that has been prevailed over the past years for three decades. Egypt’s governance crisis and its government’s rightfulness to control the power and the position had triggered the ongoing argument about the Egypt’s future under the presidency of Mubarak, which can be seen in Cairo and in the other streets of the country.

The reason of its fragility can be seen in the recent happenings in Egypt. Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak, the president for three decades and the leader of the National Democratic Party holds the power over Egypt and strengthened it over the years. There are two main opposition parties present in Egypt. The Muslim Brotherhood and the Wafd Party. Both parties allege President Mubarak of voting irregularities, fraud, interference, supporter intimidation by the government, and violence. 

The Muslim Brotherhood even if banned over the past two decades, they helped establish an important position in the landscape of the country, socially and politically. The plan of President Mubarak to curb the power over Egypt and government’s greatest opposition was seen when the Muslim Brotherhood was left with no position in the new assembly, even if they had 20% of the outgoing parliament. Recent statements say that the ruling party will put his son, Gamal, in position in the next presidential elections. Mubarak, the president since 1981, has no longer hold on the power of his position. Yet Egyptians think that whether President Mubarak will stay in power or he will designate a successor, such as his son, instability and political violence will arise. With this possible outcome, government’s attempts to attract foreign investors and tourism to fuel the lifeline of Egypt’s revenues are threatened.

The government has failed to reduce the deficit of the country and is trying to raise the investment and savings. Egypt’s increasing unemployment rate and population growth are contributing to the problem of the country by placing large and heavy burden to the government’s shoulders to hold. Government tries to make opportunities in the workforce for the 750000 Egyptians who enter the workforce annually. Egypt’s high rates of poverty and unemployment add to the weakness and political instability of the country.

Egypt’s stability depends on the National Democratic Party’s ability to produce a committed leader, and who can acquire the undivided support of the citizens in Egypt and the ruling elite. And a leader, who is dedicated to democracy and political and economic reform.

What leaders should be

It is important for an organization’s leader to know how to anticipate crisis. Organizations need to be flexible in changes. They have to grow with success and be able to adjust in every situation that might happen. Non-profit organizations need innovation. They also need to know that change is not a threat but an opportunity.

Leaders have to set an example by organizing themselves for systematic innovation, by searching for opportunities, and by looking for innovative changes in the society. In order to be successful the participation of the operating people is also needed, and not only the leaders’ thoughts.

In order to know what kind of person fits the position to be the leader for a non-profit organization. One must look at what this person has done and what his strengths are. One must also look at what the immediate key challenge of the institution is. And look for character of integrity of that person and look if he sets an example. If he is a strong leader and a successful one, the youth will imitate him. The leader must also not be selfish because the leader who thinks “we” instead of “I” is the one who is most likely to success.

The leader’s role must fit in terms of the institution’s missions and values. First, the role has to fit who he is. The role he takes has to fit the tasks. He has to build on the quality of the people in the organization and the new demands he makes on them.

           

Organizations need leaders who can lead regardless of the weather. Listening, willingness to communicate, not alibiing himself, and willingness to put the task first before himself, are the basic competences needed in a leader.

It is the leader’s job to be performance-focused to set high standards. High standards create self-respect and pride. 

Interchanging of Gender Roles

The society today, do not recognize the progressions of how women make their way up to the corporate ladder. Nowadays, women have achieved high positions in the workplace. But they are still obliged to fulfill a home maker’s responsibilities. They have to do the house chores even after a busy working day. This is because women are still expected to fulfill household responsibilities because they are still the primary doers of the house.

Even though there are gender role differences, women are still making a big leap to the top of the corporate ladder. Especially now that women are more accepted in the work place just as likely men are accepted because of the increased gender equity now present in the society.  There are many examples of this interchanging of gender roles that can be seen in many simple ways, like women who work as architects, engineers, and other jobs that are mostly common for men while they still make time for their responsibilities in their home and with their children.A person’s roles depend on his or her gender because it makes him or her different from others, mentally and physically. The society expects people to behave in a manner, in which they will be accepted as a part of the society, based on their genders and the expected behavior patterns of a male and female. Gender roles differ through different cultures and different expectations. Gender role differences are seen at home, at school, and especially in the workplace. Differences on gender roles are not only present by physical differences, but also mental differences. Females are better in language and writing skills, while men are better in their visual skills.Women are accepted in high ranking positions in the work place just as likely men are accepted. And there are three contributing factors for women to increase their progression more in the workforce. These are higher education, attainment of higher level positions, and grabbing entrepreneurship opportunities available.


More women are pursuing higher education degrees, which causes women’s advancement in work places. In the past, women are commonly holding blue collar jobs, such as clerical jobs or secretarial work. Today, women are more determined in getting professional degrees in order to access work in professional jobs.Females’ percentage of taking education has increased in the past years, which makes female more demanded in work place. Companies hire more women because of the increase of education and job opportunities offered to women, which allows them to prove their capacity and skills. There was an increase in the number of women who are working in fields such as managerial posts. However, women need special management skills, they have to be more talented, and need they more dedication towards their work, compared to men working for the same post. This shows for an example a true gender treatment difference in the work place.

The introduction of the Equal Employment Organization and laws regarding discrimination, helped change the public awareness of gender roles. Even though, men and women roles economically have become more similar, sex differences are still common and tensions are still present in the workplace.Women are required to have different skills to face various challenges and to be successful in the work place than men. According to Powell and Graves, the number of women in a workplace since 1980 has increased by 5% while the proportion of women in management positions has increased by 19%. Researchers said that there is a gap between men and women concerning payment for doing similar work.

Traditional gender roles are stuck to caveman days, where men control their more obedient women. Very little changes occurred to these percentages until 1950’s. There was a double in the population of the women who earned bachelor’s degree from 1950-2000. There was an increase in employment rate and educational opportunities for women due to the postponement of marriage. This also led to more percentage of women taking on managerial roles.

F. Sionil Jose's point of view

There will be more articles and discussions to read when you search the question, “Why are Filipinos poor” in Google. Most of them are entitled as “Why are Filipinos so poor?”. It is interesting to know the answers of this question, because by learning the answers and analyzing it, people will be able to know what to do in order to develop our economic status and to decrease the poverty rate in the Philippines.

According to F. Sionil José, Filipinos are poor because of the habits and culture they practice. They are poor because of laziness; most of adults in a slum area do nothing but idle, gossip, and drink, while some are doing honest labor all day under the sun. Filipinos are also poor because they are great show-offs, instead of using the money to help others; rich people use it to buy branded things which are not needed just for status symbols. Filipinos are also poor because of the loss of their ethical moorings by not punishing the person, who is in government and is corrupt or some other things like that. Their loyalty remains to the person who should be punished because he is a friend or a family member. Loyalty is not given to the larger group. These simple examples show the cause of the underdevelopment of our country, these also answers the question, “Why are Filipinos poor?”.

Just like the question above, the word “Development” when searched in Google, will also give many results. “Development” has many different definitions, but the most dominant meaning of Development is that, it is the growth of the process of advancement of something in particular.

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