A new report released on Tuesday, 23 June 2026, by ActionAid, Education International, the Tax and Education Alliance and partners has accused the International Monetary Fund of perpetuating unequal and colonial systems through its social spending advice, labelling the institution a “debt enforcer” that prioritises wealthy creditors over human lives and public services.
The report titled “Still cooking with a failed recipe – A review of IMF country advice on social spending, public services, debt, tax and gender equality” reveals stark disparities in how the IMF treats the Global North versus lower-income nations. Reviewed documents from Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Brazil, Nepal, the UK and others covering February 2022 to February 2025 show the IMF advising rich countries like the United Kingdom to expand public sector investments while urging countries like Brazil, Nepal, Nigeria and other African nations to cut spending on essential public services to repay external debt.
The report found that African countries are spending an average of 7.6% of their national budgets on public service wage bills, below the global average of 9%. For instance, the UK spends 15.9% of its gross domestic product on its public workforce and is advised to increase public spending. In contrast, lower-income nations like Nigeria and Nepal spend a mere 1.9% and 2.5% 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.
Arthur Larok, the Secretary General of ActionAid, said “The IMF’s recipe book is completely outdated.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.”
The NGOs called out the 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. The report noted 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. Countries like Senegal spend just 0.1% of their national budget on social programs compared to 20% in the UK.
“The IMF bizarrely argues that cutting the wages of nurses, teachers, and doctors is necessary to create space for priority spending, entirely ignoring that these frontline workers are the priority. On the other hand, they encourage Global North countries to invest more in public service,” said Roos Saalbrink, Global Lead on Economic Justice at ActionAid International.
The report also criticised the IMF’s inaction on the global debt crisis. Despite 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 indebted countries to squeeze their citizens to satisfy wealthy overseas lenders.
Jennifer Lipenga, the Tax and Gender Equality Policy Advisor at the Tax and Education Alliance, said “Feminist and women’s rights movements have increasingly shown that regressive taxes such as value added taxes have disproportionate impacts on lower-income households, particularly women and other structurally marginalized groups.
Yet, 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, such as CEDAW”.
The report concludes that the IMF remains structurally unreformed and no longer fit for purpose.
It calls upon national governments to break the colonial chains imposed by the fund and says it is time for the IMF to be retired, not reformed, with a fairer alternative multilateral space, specifically the UN Tax Convention and the UN Convention on Sovereign Debt, to replace it.
