Money matters
Countries agreed to split the board’s membership to ensure a roughly even representation of developing countries — the beneficiaries of the fund — and developed countries, the main financial contributors.
Yet as of mid-February, developed countries failed to submit nominations for their 12 seats.
Of the 14 seats allocated to developing countries, 13 are filled. The remaining seat — reserved for developing countries not represented in regional groups, a category that mostly concerns ex-Soviet nations — has become entangled in the wider dispute.
Developing countries’ seats were distributed among regional groups, with Africa receiving three seats, for example. Wealthy countries didn’t ask for a regional split, leaving them to negotiate among themselves.
To complicate the matter further, developed nations are represented in two blocs — the Eastern European group, and the Western European and Others group, which includes the United States, Australia, Canada and Japan — which have to find consensus both between themselves and among their members.
In the Western group, countries are squabbling over whether higher financial contributions should equal more seats on the board, two senior Western European government officials said.
