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By MAGGIE JARUZEL POTTER

The global financial crisis is still working its way through the system, says Jesse Griffiths, coordinator of the Bretton Woods Project. The London-based organization is one of several Mott grantees working to reform the policies and practices of international fianancial institutions (IFIs) such as The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), two large funders of development projects.

Griffiths shares his views in a Fall 2010 Mott interview, which is an update to an April 2009 Mott.org article. The original article highlighted two Mott grantees - the U.K.-based Bretton Woods Project and the Canada-based Halifax Initiative.

This IFI reform work is supported by Mott’s International Finance for Sustainability grantmaking area through the Foundation’s Environment program and is highlighted below in written and audio materials.

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• IMF “totally toothless” in preventing financial crisis
  Read an article that discusses why the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank need to change the way they make development decisions, and also why one Mott grantee, Bretton Woods Project, says the global economic crisis might not be over yet. [Read more]
• Read a transcript of a Q&A with Jesse Griffiths as he shares his views that "not a lot has changed" in reforming IFIs since the global economic crisis began. [Read more]
  
• NGO to G-20 leaders: “World Bank and IMF ideology has failed”
  In an April 2009 Mott.org article, two Mott grantees – Jesse Griffiths of the Bretton Woods Project and Fraser Reilly-King of the Halifax Initiative – said that a G-20 meeting in London secured a lot of positive media attention after world leaders announced a $1.1-trillion global package for economic recovery and reform. But, they said, the package actually will deliver less than half that amount in new or guaranteed resources. [Read more]
• "The global economy needs to be managed," NGO leader says
  “If we are going to eradicate poverty, address global climate change, and protect human rights, we can’t cling to ideologically based assertions,” said Jesse Griffiths in an April 2009 Mott.org sidebar. “We need to accept that governments and citizens need to manage economies so that they deliver the outcomes we want.” [Read more]
• Global economic woes, climate change increase important of NGO oversight
  An article in the Winter 2009 issue of Mott Mosaic discusses international anxiety about the downturn in the financial markets. That issue – coupled with growing concern about the impact of climate change – has prompted global government and NGO leaders to take renewed looks at IFIs, which were formed more than 60 years ago to regulate financial markets and promote development. [Read more] 
• Watch a historical black and white video of the signing of the Bretton Wood Monetary Agreement in 1946. The agreement established a system of rules, institutions and procedures to regulate the international monetary system, which included creation of two institutions that are known today as the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund. [View video]