By Felicia Imohimi
The ActionAid Nigeria (AAN), in collaboration with ActionAid International, Education International, the Tax and Education Alliance, and other stakeholders, has faulted the IMF on its latest advice on social and public service cuts.
ActionAid conveyed its reaction on Tuesday during a virtual report unveiling.
The report reviewed IMF’s country advice on social spending, public services, debt, tax, and gender equality.
The report is titled “Still Cooking with a Failed Recipe: A Review of IMF Country Advice on Social Spending, Public Services, Debt, Tax and Gender Equality.’’
Arthur Larok, Secretary General of ActionAid, said that the IMF policy unmasked the stark disparities on how it treated the Global North versus lower-income nations.
Larok noted that the new report, which examined IMF policy advice to 11 countries (including Nigeria) from February 2022 to February 2025, revealed that the IMF still functioned as a colonial ‘debt enforcer’ in spite of transformation rhetoric.
“African countries are spending an average of 7.6 per cent of their national budgets on public service wage bills, below the global average of nine per cent.
“The IMF social spending advice still perpetuates unequal and colonial systems that treat countries very differently.
“While rich countries like the UK are encouraged to expand public sector investments, those like Brazil, Nepal, Nigeria and other African nations are advised to cut spending on essential public services to repay external debt.”
The secretary general said the report further revealed how the IMF’s rigid, one-size-fits-all approach to public spending was disproportionately harming low-income countries across Africa and Asia.
He cited instances with UK adding that it spent 15.9 per cent of its gross domestic product on its public workforce, and it was advised to increase public spending.
“Similarly, lower-income nations like Nigeria and Nepal spend a mere 1.9 per and 2.5 per cent respectively, but are still forced to freeze or cut spending on public services that cripple their ability to rebuild while repaying debt to Global North countries and lenders.
“The IMF’s recipe book is completely outdated.
“By forcing lower-income nations to squeeze public workers, cut social spending, and prioritise foreign creditors over education and healthcare, the IMF is functioning as a global debt enforcer rather than a global development partner.
“Reviewed documents from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe revealed that while the IMF talks about protecting the vulnerable, its actual budget rules do the opposite by enforcing cuts to public spending that would benefit them.
“IMF’s rigid, one-size-fits-all approach, which aggressively pushes countries to freeze public sector wages, completely ignoring how little those nations might already be spending.
‘”Similarly, IMF has largely ignored calls to boost social spending, failing to account for massive global gaps, where countries like Senegal spend just 0.1 per cent of their national budget on social programmes compared to 20 per cent in the UK.’’
Larok said that based on the report, IMF remained structurally unreformed and no longer fit for purpose.
“The report calls on national governments to break the colonial chains imposed by the fund.
“It is time for the IMF to be retired, not reformed and a fairer, alternative multilateral space, specifically the UN Tax Convention and the UN Convention on Sovereign Debt, must replace it,”Larok said.
Also, Roos Saalbrink, Global Lead on Economic Justice at ActionAid International, noted that IMF bizarrely argued that cutting the wages of nurses, teachers, and doctors was necessary to create space for priority spending.
Saalbrink said the fund entirely ignored that these frontline workers were the priority.
“On the other hand, they encourage Global North countries to invest more in public service.
“The IMF’s inaction on the global debt crisis is deafening. In spite three-quarters of lower-income nations now spending more on debt payments than on healthcare, the IMF refuses to support widespread debt cancellation.
“Instead, it acts as a global debt collector, forcing indented countries to squeeze their citizens to satisfy wealthy overseas lenders,” Saalbrink said.
Jennifer Lipenga, Tax and Gender Equality Policy Advisor at the Tax and Education Alliance, said feminist and women’s rights movements had increasingly shown that regressive taxes such as value added taxes (VAT) had disproportionate impacts on lower-income households.
She identified the lower-income households as women and other marginalised groups.
According to her, the IMF’s tax advice remains regressive and is not informed by gender impact assessments, nor does it reflect global gender equality commitments that countries have signed on to. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
Edited by Chijioke Okoronkwo