The letter contains key asks for the ongoing consultation on the IMF’s CSO engagement guidelines, and raises concerns about CSO engagement in the context of other important, ongoing policy reviews at the International Monetary Fund.

CSOs acknowledge efforts made by the IMF’s CSO team to try to ensure CSO engagement in ongoing policy reviews, namely the Program Design and Conditionality Review, the Comprehensive Surveillance Review, and the Low-Income Country Debt Sustainability Framework Review. However, many of the key issues raised in an initial letter sent by civil society to IMF management in Autumn 2024 remain unaddressed in the context of these ongoing policy reviews. 

As the letter mentions, “consultation practices across these reviews continue to fall short of the Guidelines [on Engagement with Civil Society].

Information on timelines, terms of reference, background documentation, and how civil society input will inform outcomes has often been limited or absent. So far, they have largely consisted of online surveys with overly simplistic and multiple-choice questions that did not allow for tailored, nuanced feedback on key substantive areas. Where there were opportunities to provide open responses, those inputs were not meaningfully synthesised or clearly reflected in the presentation of findings, leaving many participants uncertain how their feedback was used, if at all.

Moreover, despite the Conditionality Review appearing on the 2025 Executive Board Workplan, no public consultation timeline, terms of reference, or publication of submissions has been made available to date. These shortcomings reflect broader, long-standing patterns in the Fund’s engagement with civil society, where a lack of clear information on policy processes and unclear guidelines on how CSO input will shape outcomes remain the norm.”

The letter also includes some asks for the ongoing IMF review of its CSO engagement guidelines itself, with a view to the future. These include some suggestions on policy process:

• Mandatory systematic inclusion of CSO perspectives in Article IV reports and in reviews of policy and strategy papers to ensure the feedback loop is closed and engagement is consistent with a clear paper trail;
• Publication of clear consultation timelines, terms of reference, and staff points of contact for all policy consultations;
• Allowing parallel CSO submissions that are not restricted to the official survey where consultation questions remain narrow or technocratic, so organisations can provide input beyond predefined questions and ensure important issues are not excluded.

Some recommendations focus on in-country engagement:

• Mandatory structured outreach to diverse CSOs 6-8 weeks before missions, supported by published stakeholder mappings and mission team contact details, agendas and supported documentation;
• Development of a simple CSO feedback tracker for each mission to record commitments made and follow up on how inputs were addressed;
• Planning of annual regional CSO dialogues clearly linked to IMF work cycles.

Read the full letter