The international financial institutions, structural adjustment and poverty reduction

Arne Ruckert

Chapter 53 in Handbook on Gender in World Politics, 2026, pp 351-356 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter analyzes the evolution of structural adjustment policies (SAPs) by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, focusing on their gendered impacts. It argues that the shift from traditional SAPs to the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) approach in the early 2000s, while introducing a focus on poverty and social services, did not fundamentally alter the neoliberal core of international financial institution (IFI) lending. These ‘poverty-sensitive’ reforms failed to overcome the negative gender impacts of previous policies, as they maintained a market-centric vision that largely ignored the gendered dimensions of macroeconomic policy and the disproportionate burden placed on women's unpaid labor. In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, the IFIs have reverted to more traditional forms of structural adjustment, reinforcing austerity and market-promoting reforms with little regard for their detrimental social and gendered consequences. The chapter concludes that genuine poverty reduction requires a more transformative, gender-sensitive approach.

Keywords: Structural Adjustment; International Financial Institutions (IFIs); Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP); Gender; Neoliberalism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781803923765
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