From Funding Projects to Influencing Policies: Are International Financial Institutions Players in Borrowing Countries’ Public Policy Arena? Sub-Saharan Africa Case

Abstract

Most international funds are channeled through international financial institutions (IFIs). Borrowing from these institutions entails to abide by some polices. These policies operate as a vehicle for disseminating policy objectives set out and advocated by these IFIs, giving them an edge to getting involved in the policy making of borrowing countries. Arises, therefore, the following question. From Funding Projects to Influencing Policies: Are International Financial Institutions Players in Borrowing Countries’ Public Policy Arena? Scholarships on the effects of IFIs development assistance on countries too often address economics aspects. Purporting to highlight the poorly addressed aspects, this paper applies, within a neoliberal theoretical framework, the discourse coalition approach to environmental and social sustainability, and came up with the following finding. IFIs built a discourse coalition, with their policy requirements as story lines, environmental and social experts as actors, and sustainable development as discourse. This discourse resonates better and more powerful in the development space so as to become the dominant discourse. By uttering sustainable development discourse, IFIs gain leverage for shaping the preference strategies of borrowing countries in their agenda setting as well as influencing their preferences, beliefs, and strategies as far as environmental as social sustainability of projects is concerned.