Security officials expect a quieter week in Washington than they had last year, when the meetings were overshadowed by terrorist threats.
Anti-globalization demonstrations and acts of civil disobedience are likely to be the biggest headache for city authorities, although they will probably be smaller than in previous years.
The largest gathering will come on Saturday, when 3000 people are expected to attend a Global Justice rally protesting at IMF and World Bank policies. They will go on to join a major anti-war demonstration, which is expected to attract more than 200,000 people.
Sameer Dossani, director of the 50 Years Is Enough campaign for radical reform of the World Bank and IMF, criticized security authorities for setting up an exclusion zone around the institutions' buildings, but agreed that restrictions were gradually easing.
'The meetings soon after 11 September 2001 were of course the worst imaginable, but the police were more cooperative last year over permits and plans. And that's continued,' he said.
The World Bank sees the quieter atmosphere as a sign of an evolution in the bank's relationship with civil society organizations. 'We are now both engaged in ongoing dialogues. Rather than being on the streets, these people are now in the building talking with us,' a spokesman said.
Precautions will nevertheless remain tight around the World Bank and IMF venues, causing disruption and delays to delegates.
'We like to refer to [the situation] as the 'new normal'', Captain Jeffrey Harold, Domestic Security Officer in the Metropolitan Police Department, told Emerging Markets.
'There is still heightened concern over security in the US, and for Washington DC in particular, which means a lot of precautions. But that's just the new situation we're in now.'
The Department for Homeland Security raised the general threat level for Washington DC's financial sector from 'elevated' to 'high' in the weeks preceding last year's meetings, following intelligence that Al-Qaeda operatives had staked-out possible targets, including the World Bank and the IMF. DC's Emergency Management Agency (EMA) said last year that it had received additional credible information relating to the terrorist threat.
But the threat level returned to 'elevated' in November last year, and has remained unchanged since. 'Security is based upon the intelligence assessment we have. We believe we have ample resources to deal with the current threat,' Harold said.
This year's meeting has been further truncated to just two days. Despite the absence of a specific threat, it is not clear whether a further improvement in conditions could lead to the restoration of a week-long programme in future years. 'The length of the meeting is a decision of the host government', said the spokesman.