Publication

This brief shows that the effect of International Monetary Fund (IMF) programs on health spending is controversial. The brief reviews the findings of the Center for Global Development’s Working Group on IMF Programs and Health Spending, convened in 2006 to investigate if IMF programs constrain government health spending and to make practical recommendations for improvements. The group concludes that IMF-supported fiscal programs have often been too conservative or risk-averse, that the IMF Board and management have not made sufficiently clear what is expected of IMF staff and that a striking disconnect exists between macroeconomic and health sector policymaking.