Transformations in international development finance:

debates and tensions from an International Political Economy perspective in the post-2008 global crisis

Abstract

The 2008 global financial crisis constitutes a turning point in international development finance, associated with changes in the International Financial Architecture (IFA) and in the mechanisms through which resources are provided to developing countries. From an International Political Economy (IPE) perspective, this article analyzes transformations in the instruments, actors and institutions involved in development finance in the post-crisis period. The discussion draws on debates within the field regarding the relationship between power, markets and institutions (Cohen, 2008; 2022), as well as contributions that examine these dynamics from a Latin American perspective (Tussie, 2015). Within this framework, the article examines the expansion of the financialization of development and the reconfiguration of the role of international financial institutions, particularly through the concept of the Wall Street Consensus (Gabor, 2021). It also addresses the implications of international agendas related to sustainability, energy transition and climate change (Cadman and Sarker, 2022), together with tensions associated with extractivist patterns of international insertion in Latin America (Acosta, 2020). The article argues that these transformations remain embedded within existing structures of the IFA and tend to reproduce asymmetries in the international system.