Conditionality is viewed as a central feature of IMF lending, which is essential to the IMF's success: Conditionality is seen as central to IMF lending, meant to assure a borrowing country that if it takes certain well-specified actions, continued financing will be forthcoming. It is thus seen as following the country to invest in longer-term policy adjustment by assuring them that if they do so, IMF financing will not cut off. (Ranis et al. 2006, p. 53).
Many member states believe that these conditions infringe with a country's national sovereignty to use loans independently. Since the creation of both the IMF and the World Bank, both have provided trillions of dollars in loans to poor countries. The Third World acquires debts of over $1.3 trillion, which has severely hindered the third worlds abilities to provide for the basic needs of their citizens (IMF, 2007). Third world debt has along been recognized as a major barrier to human development. Increasing debts in the third world has led economies to a crisis, where the odds of recovering are very slim. Looking at developing countries from an economic perspective, it can be argued that economic development has been stagnant in most countries. Scholar, William Easterly, came to the conclusion that, "there was much lending, little adjustment, and little growth in the 1980's and 1990's " in the developing world (2001, p.140). Annual per capita growth for developing countries averaged 0% for the years from 1980 to 1998, whereas from 1960-1979 their growth had averaged about 2.5% annually (Easterly 2001, p.141). In addition, poverty continues to prevail, with an estimate of 20% of the world's population living on less than a dollar a day, and more than 45% on less than two dollars a day (Ravaillon 2005, table 2). A large number of these countries were worse off economically in 2000 than they were in 1980. For example, the World Bank's data indicates that per capita income was lower in 1999 for nine countries than in 1960: Haiti, Nicaragua, Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Madagascar, Niger, Rwanda, and Zambia (World Bank 2002).
