Abstract
As it has for many years, International Monetary Fund conditionality is currently receiving much attention in the context of the global financial crisis. At the beginning of the 2000s the Fund introduced a policy of ‘streamlining’ intended to reduce the amount of conditionality and refocus it, with a view to increasing country ownership and improving programme implementation. This article uses the results of a report by the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office into structural conditionality to assess the extent to which the initiative delivered on its promises. More significant seem to be the recent changes associated with the global crisis. The article discusses the evolution of conditionality, and assesses the current situation and the prospects for the future.