The hybrid session “IMF’s strategy on social spending facing austerity: new direction or bandaid?” will be held on Wednesday, April 12th, 2023, from 2:30 pm to 4:00 pm EDT in the IMF HQ2-03B-768B meeting room. The 2023 Spring Meetings of the World Bank Group and the IMF and the Civil Society Policy Forum will take place from April 10 to April 16, 2023 in Washington DC. To participate online, here is the link for the session: https://imf.zoom.us/j/98300942112?pwd=NlZQLzVvdU5pbGVjeGdyZThvWFZxZz09 Registration is not needed for those that will be joining sessions on zoom. Furthermore, the session will be broadcast on the IMF website: www.imf.org/cso. To check your local time zone, please click here. For those participating online, simultaneous interpretation will be available to Spanish, French, and Arabic. Civil society welcomed the IMF’s new policy on social spending in 2019. However, we are concerned that spending on social protection, health and education is still not given sufficient priority in government budgets. Indeed, we fear conditionality in IMF country programs will continue to negatively impact essential social spending. How should IMF and other international agencies, labor movements and CSOs each work to enhance and protect national social spending programs? And, how might international cooperation be strengthened to assure more adequate, efficient, universal and sustainably financed social protection and social services in all countries. The event is co-organized by the Global Coalition for Social Protection Floors (GCSPF), Bretton Woods Project, Human Rights Watch, International Trade Union Confederation, Kvinna till Kvinna Foundation, NGO Committee on Financing for Development, Oxfam International, Social Justice in Global Development, Social Policy Initiative (South Africa). Moderator: Alex Cambpell, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Panelists Rodrigo Cerda, IMF Shahra Razavi, Director, Social Protection Department, ILO Alexander Kentikelenis, Oxfam International Ahilan Kadirgamar, Senior Lecturer, Department of Sociology, University of Jaffna, Sri Lanka