By AL for APC

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, 30 July 2008

ITeM has been coordinating IFIwatchnet since 2005. This novel initiative in international NGO networking, currently in its sixth year of operation, connects organisations worldwide that monitor international financial institutions (IFIs) such as the World Bank, the IMF and regional development banks.

Formed in response to a call by civil society groups to maximise the effectiveness of their communications and networking efforts, it is rapidly developing into a key tool for ever increasing degrees of collaboration between “IFIwatching” groups at national, regional and international levels.

Blogs hosted by IFIwatchnet are being used to spread news and bring fresh, unbiased updates from IFI meetings. With the participation of guest bloggers from various civil society organisations who were in Washington D.C. during the 2007 World Bank and IMF annual meetings, the blog covered a number of important topics discussed there, including IMF reform, extractive industry projects and the Development Committee agenda, among others.

ITeM: www.item.org.uy

This article has been extracted from the 2007 APC Annual report available in English, French and Spanish.

(END/2008)