Our common interest, the report of the Commission for Africa, launched 11 March, has pointed the finger at the Bretton Woods Institutions for their role in African underdevelopment and has called for sweeping reforms. Controversially, the Commission has proposed the establishment of "decision-making councils" for each institution made up of member countries' political representatives. In its analysis of the reasons for African economic woes, the Commission has singled out the IMF for forcing African governments to slash budgets for clinics and schools at a time when Asian countries were investing. "Evidence shows that IMF and World Bank economic policy in the 1980s and early 1990s took little account of how these policies would potentially impact on poor people in Africa."