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Obstacles to progress

Realities

rising critical reform needs in shared (e.g., labor and product market reforms) and non-core

areas
***
Lower program completion rates suggest increasing ownership issues, as politically complex
structural challenges intensified. Strong ownership occurred where programs incorporated

national reform plans, there was a robust communication strategy, and/or implementation
capacity was strong
***
To improve program success and reduce risks, certain trade-offs in program design need to be
re-assessed. These include the trade-offs between realism and ambition; granularity and

flexibility; gradualism and speed; parsimony and more conditionality; and in some cases,
between debt operations and fiscal adjustment. The RoC suggests a move toward more

realism, granularity, gradualism, and parsimony in programs, as well as sharper DSAs to
mitigate any bias in judgment and ensure more balanced consideration of debt operations,

where warranted. “
2018 REVIEW OF PROGRAM DESIGN AND CONDITIONALITY 260
INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND

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The Effects of Structural Adjustment Programs on Poverty and Income Distribution
“ Propensity score matching does not show significant effects of SAPs on poverty indicators.
Using Heckman regressions we find evidence that participation in IMF programs is connected

to higher poverty rates and a more unequal income distribution. These results stay robust after
controlling for other economic variables.

***
This paper gives evidence that IMF programs tend to harm countries in terms of poverty levels

and income distribution. Rich people seem to profit from the participation in IMF programs,
poor people seem to lose, falling even deeper into poverty. One of the arguments of the IMF is

that, although there might be a negative impact on poverty levels in the short run, the situation
tends to improve in the long run. It does not disclose however, how long IMF programs need to
show positive outcomes “

"The Effects of Structural Adjustment Programs on Poverty and Income Distribution," 261
Oberdabernig, Doris A.

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Conditionality
“ Recent academic studies and reviews have found mixed evidence on learning outcomes in
education PPPs, and no evidence that they consistently perform better than public schools.7