10 The Role and Performance of the IMF in Aid to Low‐Income Countries: Lessons from Evaluation

Abstract This chapter examines the treatment of aid to Sub-Saharan Africa in programs supported by the IMF's Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), along with relevant Fund policies and communications. It builds on an evaluation by the IMF's Independent Evaluation Office — The IMF and Aid to Sub-Saharan Africa — which explored the validity (or not) of three external criticisms. The first is that PRGFs blocked the use of aid through overly conservative macroeconomic programs. The second is that PRGFs lacked ambition in projecting and identifying opportunities for the use of aid, which may in turn have tempered donors' actual provision of aid. The third is that PRGFs focused little on poverty reduction and growth. The chapter also explores the institutional drivers for Fund behavior and the disconnectedness identified in the evaluation between the Fund's rhetoric on aid, poverty reduction, and the Millennium Development Goals, and its operational practices.