Amid great human and economic suffering from the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries are in urgent need of liquidity to respond to the crisis and fill investment gaps in critical areas like public health, climate change and inequality.

Chief among multilateral lending institutions is the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has a current lending volume of $1 trillion. Despite this, the IMF has lent out just $108 billion, i.e. around 10 percent of its lending capacity since the start of the COVID-19 crisis.

Why have countries been unable or unwilling to access IMF loans? What challenges has the Fund faced in responding to the crisis and disbursing funding? How could the IMF be reformed to better respond to future crises?

A group of experts recently convened to review the IMF’s fiscal toolkit and suggest structural reforms, the results of which were published as part of an April 2021 report by the Boston University Global Development Policy Center.

On Wednesday, May 19, join the Boston University Global Development Policy Center for an expert webinar discussion, featuring report editors Kevin P. Gallagher and Haihong Gao and contributors Rakesh Mohan, Isabel Ortiz and Edwin Truman.