As the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank Group (WBG) hold their Annual Meetings, the International Peoples’ Movement for Self-Determination and Liberation (IPMSDL) presents this resource guide on the relationship between Indigenous Peoples and the international financial institutions (IFIs). It brings together articles, statements, reports, and analyses from Indigenous Peoples, First Nations, Aboriginal peoples, and ethnic nationalities, and remains open to further contributions from their living and continuing struggles around the world.
The guide is built on IPMSDL’s analysis that, in practice, the IMF and World Bank entrench imperialist plunder, underwrite authoritarian and militarized states, and impose austerity and extraction on Indigenous Peoples territories. It situates this analysis within a decades-long history of Indigenous Peoples resistance to these institutions.
The guide contains resource links:
- Section I sets out IPMSDL’s positions and its vision of pro-people, pro-planet pathways to development.
- Sections II and III offer a wider critique of the IMF-WBG and its debt regime, from Bretton Woods to the present.
- Section IV examines Indigenous Peoples’ experience of IFI safeguards, including Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC), on paper and in practice.
- Section V collects case studies from the ground, including the Chico River Dam struggle in the Philippines, Indigenous-led resistance to austerity in Ecuador, and communities affected by IFI-financed projects in South Asia, Myanmar, and Nigeria.
- Section VI highlights movement-building efforts, including conferences, days of action, boycotts, and joint calls for accountability.
The guide is intended for Indigenous Peoples communities, advocates, researchers, journalists, students, and policymakers who seek a deeper understanding of how IFI policies affect ancestral lands and rights. It can serve as a briefing resource ahead of the Annual Meetings and as a reference for campaigns, teach-ins, and solidarity work.
Read, download, and share the guide to join the call to reclaim our future from the IMF-World Bank.
