mongolia and kyrgyzstan introduced a universal child benefit system and the IMF made them get rid of it because it wasn’t means tested despite all evidence suggesting that universal systems are the most effective. as a result around 400,000 children will lose income support.
you’ll struggle to find a clearer example of neoliberalism in action.
WTF! Are Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan provinces of IMFistan? No they are not! So the IMF should get out of their domestic policy! And furthermore, *dons rules lawyer hat*, anything that’s for children is means-tested because children are at specific disadvantages relative to adults. Anyway, fuck these international bureaucrats thinking they can set policy for countries they don’t live in.
What are good angles of influence on the IMF? What does it look like to convince them that their mandate does not extend to making demands like this? Is it as simple as ‘publish lots of RCTs about how universal benefits work better’? Are there any examples of the IMF changing its mind about the policies it pushes? How do we fix this?
(Making loans contingent on good domestic policy isn’t inherently a horrible idea but it is unsurprising that when implemented it quickly goes downhill from “implement these accounting and anti-corruption best practices” to “run your domestic economy in exactly the non-evidence-supported way we like, regardless of whether this helps you actually meet any targets we could defensibly be concerned with”.)
Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan lose out in their struggle with the IMF over the targeting of child benefits – Development Pathways
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A Middleground 