What to Make of Global Policy Meetings?

Finding myself on the road this weekend, I caught up with some video watching – not movies but, instead, various reports on the prior weekend’s gathering of economic officials for the Annual Meetings of the IMF and World Bank. I had three main reactions:

First, relief that I had decided not to go to the meetings this time around. The videos from the event were a great complement to the research and media reports I had already read; and all signaled that little new ground was covered despite the enormous gathering of government officials, central bankers, and representatives from private business and academia.

Second, bewilderment that so much money can be spent by so many for so little. Yes, there is merit in gathering lots of people in one place, especially when solutions require not just uniform analyses but also a better sense of collective responsibility. But to make this benefit meaningful, the agenda needs to be proactive and action-oriented – which does not seem to have been sufficiently the case.

Third, the impact of such large global meetings is losing ground to more focused events. Yes, the vast majority of today’s economic and financial problems are interconnected – across sectors, countries and regions. But it is also clear that key decision-makers prefer to work in smaller setups.

Consider Europe where officials are irritated at having "their" challenges discussed by other countries. Their preference is to handle the serious stuff at the regional (rather than global) level; and to do so after a series of bilateral meetings among governments and institutions able to pull key policy levers.

I do realize that dramatic policy breakthroughs often occur behind closed doors and only surface later. Let us hope that this was indeed the case last weekend. Otherwise, having spent a lot of time and money, the international community would have wasted an important opportunity.

(Photo: IMF/Flickr)

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