Change, Language and Power: The Example of International Financial Institutions’ Policies in Sub-Saharan Africa

International financial institutions (IFIs, the IMF and the World Bank) and their policies have faced several global crises since the late twentieth century, and these institutions claim that they have implemented significant changes in response. In this context, after examining the polysemy of the concept of change, it is argued that the changes have been limited, and that language plays a key role in maintaining the stability of policies, theories, and the international institutions that convey them. This is illustrated by the empirical example of the formulations of the policies required by the IFIs in Sub-Saharan African economies since the rise of the IFIs' role as policy drivers in the 1980s. Economic outcomes in African countries remain poor and even exhibit a divergence from other regions, with the underlying causalities remaining unchanged (notably, export structures based on commodities). Despite the 'small changes' claimed by theories and policies, evaluating them based on their consequences reveals their underlying stability.