Why revisit conditionality? The tension between country ownership and conditionality emerged as a central issue in the debates about policy-based lending. Over the past quarter century, the development community has learned from the experience with policy-based lending around the world. Among the most important lessons are that conditionality cannot substitute ownership. The approach to conditionality has shifted away from the old model of the 1980s, but has not yet settled on a new one. While there is now generally more recognition of the importance of ownership, a stronger focus on...