In 1998, Globalization Challenge Initiative (GCI) was formed to support citizen’s groups in developing and transition countries in their struggle to shape their countries’ future without undue interference from foreign donors and creditors, particularly the IMF and World Bank.
GCI provides educational materials, training, and advocacy support to citizen’s groups seeking to provide homegrown development alternatives to the prescriptions of the IMF and World Bank. In many countries, citizen’s groups are clamoring for homegrown development alternatives to tackle issues, such as the need for job creation, growing inequality between rich and poor, poor access and quality of health and education services, and weak protection of the environment and natural resources.GCI’s supports citizen’s groups in developing and transition countries in three areas:
In particular CGI provides support in the following areas:
- Documentation GCI helps groups acquire and analyze information about policy prescriptions that the IMF and World Bank promote for their country. Citizen’s groups cannot effectively participate in policy-making without adequate information about the priorities and economic options under consideration by their governments and creditor institutions, particularly the IMF and World Bank
- Impact Assessment and Analysis. GCI supports efforts by groups to monitor and analyze the impacts of specific economic reform policies in different country circumstances. In particular, to analyze macroeconomic policies, budget priorities; privatization plans; financial sector restructuring; industrialization strategy; trade and agricultural policies and their social, environmental, and political impacts