Giving developing countries a bigger voice.

Byline: Hardev Kaur

THE international financial system has failed, is broken and needs to be fixed. The Bretton Woods institutions, controlled by today's developed nations as victors of World War 2, are ill-equipped to deal with the 21st century's global crisis that they helped create. This has been clearly demonstrated by the inability of the system to cope with the on-going crisis.

As capital flows are international, the bodies that monitor them, such as the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, must be truly global, too. The current crisis has exposed their weakness and found them to be seriously deficient. Their management and voting powers are not representative nor reflect today's world. The relevance and legitimacy of the Bretton Woods institutions has been questioned in the wake of the crisis.

The many deficiencies have been clearly exposed and there is need for reforms. United Nations …