A/HRC/38/33 reports. 63 More recently, a number of IMF loans, including to Egypt and Jordan, have included “gender conditionalities”. 29. These are very important steps forward, but much remains to be done. Observers have criticized IMF for focusing too much on labour-market participation and micro-level gender budgeting decisions. 64 An example of IMF ignoring gender in the broader macroeconomic context is the constitutional amendment passed by the Government of Brazil in 2016, capping public spending for 20 years, which has been characterized as “the mother of all austerity plans”. 65 IMF very publicly supported the initiative. Brazilian researchers claim that, subsequent to the amendment, “expenditures specifically benefitting women were reduced by 58 per cent”.66 Unsurprisingly, Oxfam has called on IMF to focus on the gender impact of its core macroeconomic advice, as well as on the creation of fiscal space to support quality public care services and the discontinuation of “policy advice that is shown to have negative impacts on gender equality”.67 30. In dealing with an issue like gender equality, IMF also needs to overcome its aversion to ever mentioning human rights. Even a study showing convincingly that legal restrictions strongly hinder female labour force participation in low-income countries, calling for their elimination, advocating “constitutionally guaranteed equity between men and women [as] the absolute minimum” and ideally the “guarantee [of] legal equality to women in all dimensions” made no reference at all to human rights, women’s human rights or the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It did, however, repeat several times, that its recommendations “should be considered against the backdrop of countries’ broadly accepted cultural and religious norms”.68 No comparable caveat was included in relation to the 189 States that had ratified and accepted the Convention’s binding legal obligations. As noted above, 69 the World Bank has now managed to move beyond this form of “airbrushing” human rights obligations out of the picture and it is to be hoped that IMF will follow suit. IV. Social protection Introduction 31. In the aftermath of the global financial crisis and in response to the increasing backlash against neoliberalism, IMF has gradually moved over the past few years to accept the macro-criticality of some elements of social protection. Five recommendations emerging from a 2017 report of the Independent Evaluation Office of those initiatives were subsequently supported by the Executive Board.70 Given the inconsistent and contingent past practice at IMF and the uncertainty of its staff about its role, the report’s key message was the need for a clear strategic framework to guide IMF involvement in social protection. In January 2018, a management implementation plan 71 announced the preparation of a paper to be discussed by the Executive Board in February 2019 that would address a definition of social protection, the macro-criticality of social protection, the affordability and efficiency of social protection systems, potential forms of IMF engagement with social 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 10 ActionAid, “Women as ‘underutilized assets’” (October, 2017). K. Donald and N. Lusiani, “The IMF, Gender Equality and Expenditure Policy” (Bretton Woods Project and the Center for Economic and Social Rights, 2017). S. Sims, “Brazil passes the mother of all austerity plans”, The Washington Post, 16 December 2016. G. David, “The impacts of IMF-backed austerity on women’s rights in Brazil”, in Bretton Woods Observer (Spring 2018), available at www.brettonwoodsproject.org/2018/03/impacts-imf-backedausterity-womens-rights-brazil/. “Great Expectations”, p. 7. C. Gonzales et al, “Fair Play: More Equal Laws Boost Female Labor Force Participation”, IMF Staff Discussion Note (February 2015). IMF, The IMF and Social Protection. Ibid. IMF, “Implementation Plan in Response to the Board-endorsed Recommendations for the IEO Evaluation Report — ‘The IMF and Social Protection’” (January 2018).