By James Franey
The International Monetary Fund, a post-World War II global lender designed to bail out debt-laden economies, is set to revamp its climate change and gender units after pressure from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, people familiar with the matter have told The Post.
The changes, first reported by Bloomberg News, will see both the IMF’s climate and development and inclusion and gender units folded into the DC-based body’s “macro-financial and structural policies” division, the sources said.
“In recent years, the IMF has become exceedingly woke,” said one DC insider. “So it’s a pleasant surprise to see them take a small step in the right direction.”
Nile Gardiner, the director of the Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom at the Heritage Foundation, told The Post that there is “clearly zero patience in Washington” for these kinds of policies that he said “completely undermine the effectiveness of the international bodies like the IMF.”
“The IMF is pursuing a far-left climate change and gender agenda, which is completely unrelated to the role of the IMF. The American people have had enough of woke left-wing ideology running riot through international institutions. This madness has to end,” the former aide to the late British prime minister added.
The Post has approached the IMF and the Treasury Department for comment.
The move comes after Bessent used a speech in April to accuse the IMF and its sister organization, the World Bank, of “mission creep” by promoting left-wing causes over economic stability, urging them to rein in excessive spending.
“Focus on these areas is crowding out its work on critical macroeconomic issues,” the hedge fund mogul said at the time, “The IMF has been whistling past the graveyard.”
Papers written by the Fund’s experts have, in the past, backed causes such as net-zero and carbon taxes. The institution also takes part in providing data for the controversial global gender inequality index.
