Developing world leaders call for voting changes at the IMF and World Bank at BRICS summit in New Delhi

Leaders of the world’s largest developing countries want to shake up the world order so that they play a more central role in international decision-making. Meeting for a one-day BRICS summit in New Delhi, the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa released a joint declaration calling for changes to the voting rules at the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

“This dynamic process of reform is necessary to ensure the legitimacy and effectiveness of the Fund,” they said in the statement.

As the global clout of the BRICS countries increases, there’s been mounting pressure for the reform of the decision-making processes at major international institutions like the UN Security Council. BRICS countries are also pushing for more of a say in deciding who heads the World Bank. “We reiterate that the heads of the IMF and the World Bank be selected through an open and merit-based process,” they said in their statement.

The joint declaration comes a week after the United States put forward their nominee for President of the World Bank, head of Dartmouth College Jim Yong Kim. Many developing countries are supporting figures from Colombia and Nigeria. But those nominees are extremely unlikely to succeed since the U.S. is the organization’s largest shareholder (also, the position has been held by an American since 1944).

The BRICS countries also slammed the West for endangering the global economy with its monetary policy, and for profiting at the expense of the developing world. Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said at the summit that the developed world’s monetary policy “brings enormous trade advantages to developed countries, and results in unfair obstacles for other countries.”