Poverty reduction is now a global agenda. During the 1980s and 1990s when
structural adjustment was in vogue, there was the general belief that if one could endure the
short-run social costs the long-run benefits would be enormous. Never was it reckoned that
the long run referred to was a Keynes‟ “long-run”, when all may be dead! Nevertheless the
call for putting a “human face” on adjustment by some non-governmental organizations and
some United Nations agencies was finally heeded to when towards the close of the 1990s
consensus was reached between the donor community, the United Nations and the developing
countries on the International Development Goals (IDG). The principal objective of the IDG
is to reduce by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty by 2015.
At the September 1999 Annual Meetings of the IMF a clear mandate was issued for
the Fund: “to integrate the objectives of poverty reduction and growth more fully into its
operations in the poorest member countries”. Consequently, a new facility, the Poverty
Reduction and Growth Facility (PRGF), was established to replace the Enhanced Structural
Adjustment Facility (ESAF).