At a critical side event during the IMF/World Bank Spring Meetings, a broad coalition of labor leaders and civil society organizations gathered to examine the growing disconnect between the IMF’s rhetoric on social spending and the realities of its austerity-driven programs.
Co-organized by the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors, Global Social Justice, MENA Fem Movement, Human Rights Watch, Arab Reform Initiative, Akina Mama wa Afrika, and other key groups, the session—Austerity vs. Protection: Labor’s Perspective on the IMF’s Contradictory Social Spending Approach—highlighted the findings of a new ITUC study on the implementation of the IMF’s 2019 social spending strategy.
The discussion revealed that despite policy commitments to social protection, IMF programs continue to prioritize fiscal consolidation, often at the expense of essential public services and workers’ rights. Rather than reducing inequality, these measures have exacerbated social and economic divides.
