Smoke and mirrors - The role of World Bank and IMF in shaping social security policy in the

7 3 The World Bank and IMF’s Approach to Social Security 3 The World Bank and IMF’s Approach to Social Security The most significant means through which the IFIs impact on social security policy is via the provision of loans to governments. [...] 16 3 The World Bank and IMF’s Approach to Social Security Due to the inaccuracy of the PMT mechanism, the IFIs invest a lot of money trying to improve the targeting formula. [...] 17 3 The World Bank and IMF’s Approach to Social Security When assessing the impacts of a poverty-targeted programme, the World Bank and IMF often do not account for the exclusion errors that are a result of the design of the targeting mechanism. [...] In Palestine, for example, the social registry is noted as a means of “improv[ing] the coordination, coverage and targeting of social development programs”67 and in Lebanon, it is a “a powerful platform to coordinate social policy.”68 In Morocco, the World Bank even stipulates, in a disbursement linked indicator, that the government will implement a law “setting forth that the [social registry] is. [...] Consequently, only the head of the household may apply to the programme, which, UNICEF notes “might cause exclusion of females, within the household, who wish to apply to the program but the male head of the household does not want to.