Poor countries must stop contracting global consultancy firms – IMF boss

The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde has urged poor countries in the world to desist from using global consultancy firms to write development strategies.

She was speaking at an event on funding of sustainable development goals at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

She criticised such global consultants asking the representatives of “the McKinseys and Boston Consulting Groups” and any other consultancy firms in the room to listen to her even as she made the uncomfortable comments about their work.“I’m looking around to see whether there are any of the McKinseys and Boston Consulting Groups and if there are please listen to me.”

“I see many, many low-income countries and emerging-market economies spend millions of dollars commissioning consultants to build their strategic plan. I would recommend some saving be made by taking the 17 principles, the actionable items, and start with that. From there, the consultants can actually do their job of putting it into reality. But don’t reinvent it — it’s right there. So much is wasted. That’s part of the inefficient spending that can actually be saved.” She argued that the low-income and emerging-market economies must raise more revenue domestically and cut white elephant projects and corruption. She further indicated that the private sector must play an important role if poorer countries were to ever achieve the 17 development goals set by the UN.