This policy brief critically examines the structural inequities within the IMF’s governance framework, highlighting how its design from the post-World War II period continues to disproportionately favour developed economies over those in the Global South. Historically shaped by colonial-era power imbalances, the IMF’s weighted voting mechanism binds a country’s financial contributions, access to resources, and voting power in a manner that entrenches historical imbalances. Such an arrangement not only distorts decision-making by granting a de facto veto to powerful nations but also limits the borrowing capacity of low-income countries facing urgent social, economic, and environmental challenges.

While this brief advances ambitious, structurally transformative reforms that are politically sensitive, it simultaneously proposes a set of more politically feasible options that should be understood not as substitutes, but as incremental steps toward the same long‑term objective of equitable governance.

The brief argues that these enduring governance flaws amplify vulnerabilities in today’s increasingly interconnected and climate-vulnerable world. However, any effort at remediation must contend with an uncompromising geopolitical climate: the G20’s deliberations are now marked by sharpened great-power rivalry, contested sanctions regimes, and discordant approaches to climate and industrial policy, all of which impede the formation of durable coalitions for reform. Delayed responses in issuing Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), along with punitive surcharges imposed on heavily indebted countries, exemplify policies that undermine timely and fair crisis management. Additionally, the disproportionate dominance of high-income nations within mixed IMF constituencies further weakens efforts toward genuine democratisation and balanced global representation.

In response, the brief sets out a package of transformative and incremental recommendations for the G20. Key proposals include delinking voting power from financial contributions and resource access, decoupling SDR allocations from IMF quotas in favour of a needs-based, automatic mechanism triggered by objective criteria, and reforming the quota formula to incorporate climate responsibility and vulnerability. Additional measures advocate for a representative leadership selection process transitioning to a transparent, merit-based, and regionally rotating system and the abolition of punitive surcharges that burden vulnerable nations. Finally, the brief emphasises the strategic role of the G20 in overcoming geopolitical resistance and leveraging emerging global coalitions to modernise the multilateral financial architecture. By advancing these reforms, the G20 can help create a more inclusive, responsive, and sustainable IMF that meets the complex challenges of the 21st century.