The debate on whether or not the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and their intervention strategies are a positive force for change in the developing world continues to rage. Featuring both macroeconomic and microeconomic approaches, this book brings together an international team of contributors and centres upon three broad themes:

• the ideology of the IMF and World Bank
• poverty reduction
• conditionality

In exploring these themes, this book will be a valuable reference for postgraduate students and professionals in the fields of development studies and political economy.

 This chapter sets out reasons for questioning the effectiveness of IMF conditionalities and suggests how the Fund has responded to this.