The IMF Executive Board concluded the 2026 Review of Programme Design and Conditionality on September 14.
The review examined IMF-supported programmes implemented between January 2018 and December 2024, a period marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, geopolitical conflicts, tighter financing conditions and heightened economic uncertainty.
The IMF found that programmes responded quickly to successive shocks, helping countries meet urgent balance-of-payments needs and avoid excessively severe economic adjustments.
Countries that introduced timely and sustained measures rebuilt financial buffers and strengthened macroeconomic fundamentals. However, repeated shocks and implementation failures prevented other countries from restoring medium-term external viability.
The reforms are intended to make future programmes more coherent, realistic and responsive to changing conditions.
The IMF said programme design should be based on credible economic and financing assumptions while considering the implementation capacity of individual countries.
Fiscal adjustment would remain central to restoring macroeconomic stability. Most Executive Directors supported earlier adjustment where necessary and feasible, provided measures were realistic, growth-friendly and sensitive to effects on vulnerable households.
However, several Directors cautioned against treating front-loaded adjustment as a general recommendation, particularly for low-income countries and fragile or conflict-affected states.
Future programmes will make greater use of risk-informed baselines, scenario analysis, contingency planning and regular comparisons with original targets.
The IMF will also pilot a Medium-Term Structural Reform Strategy to prioritise and sequence reforms directly linked to resolving balance-of-payments difficulties. “Fund financing should support, not substitute for, necessary adjustment and reform,” Executive Directors said.
Directors called for realistic assumptions about domestic and external financing, transparent debt management and monitoring of senior debt exposures in countries facing significant vulnerabilities.
Programmes should avoid imposing excessive conditions and instead focus on measures essential to restoring stability. More extensive structural reforms should be sequenced carefully and coordinated with other international financial institutions.
The IMF will also introduce more systematic end-of-programme assessments to strengthen transparency, accountability and institutional learning.
Implementation will be phased, beginning with updated operational guidance, analytical tools and templates for IMF country teams.
Selected reforms will be piloted before wider implementation, with the IMF stressing the need to avoid excessive administrative burdens for countries with limited institutional capacity.
–IMF/ChannelAfrica–
