PHM-Exch> IMF CONDITIONALITY: STILL UNDERMINING HEALTHCARE?

[Claudio Schuftan]

June 15, 2017
Last year, the IMF tried to counter long-running accusations that its
programs damage health outcomes in
developing countries, but the independent evidence points in the opposite
direction. The question is whether
the IMF will use this year’s reviews of its lending to switch approach and
start helping Sustainable Development
Goal (SDG) Three to “ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at
all ages.”
Essentially, the IMF is arguing that this policy change has had two
impacts. Firstly, that IMF programs are no
longer associated with austerity. Secondly, that the IMF has used
conditionality to ring-fence social spending.
Unfortunately, neither of these claims hold up well under scrutiny. We
examine the first below, and will detail
the second in a forthcoming blog.
The IMF’s concern not to be seen to be impacting health expenditure in the
poorest countries can be viewed as
an improvement. However, it is clear that IMF conditionality can constrain
expenditure on health and other
related services, and is at odds with the SDG commitment to achieve
universal health coverage.
The next scheduled review of IMF funding to low-income countries is planned
later this year. Unfortunately,
judging by the questions posed in a public consultation last year, the IMF
review may be missing the point. The
impacts on health and other social expenditure arise not primarily because
of the access to IMF financing –
which the questions focus on – but on the conditionality attached to that
financing. More promisingly, the IMF
2018 Executive Board work program also promises a review of conditionality,
but, as yet, there is no public
information on the scope of this review.

Read more on Global Health Check.
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