The IMF is "taking another step back towards the dark era of structural adjustment," says Oxfam

Responding to the IMF Executive Board concluding its 2026 Review of Program Design and Conditionality, Oxfam International's Senior Policy Advisor Nabil Abdo said: 

“Civil society organizations warned the IMF what frontloaded fiscal adjustment would mean in practice: large spending cuts imposed all at once, leaving ordinary people to pay the price. It is the same failed shock therapy that devastated countries and communities in the past. The warnings were swept aside, even though many board members echoed civil society’s concerns.

"At a time of economic turmoil and repeated shocks, the Fund had a chance to show struggling countries that it had changed. That it would listen. That it would help countries weather crises without exacerbating inequality and hardship. Instead, it chose to double down on a model that has already caused so much damage, taking another step back towards the dark era of structural adjustment.

"We do welcome the Board’s recognition that distributional impacts need to be considered in the design of IMF programs. But recognition on paper must be systematically translated into the design and implementation of programs.”