This article examines why and how neoliberal policy prescriptions promoted by major international development institutions have persisted—and even strengthened—despite the profound challenges posed by two major global crises: the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID 19 pandemic. Although both crises exposed structural weaknesses of neoliberal governance, institutions such as the IMF, World Bank, UNDP, and OECD continued to advance market-oriented reforms. The central research question asks: How have these institutions maintained the neoliberal logic of their policy recommendations between 2008 and 2024 despite the delegitimizing effects of the crises? The article argues that the key mechanism enabling this persistence is the institutions’ *governance power, operationalized through three capacities: the ability to define crises, the ability to prescribe policy solutions, and the ability to monitor implementation. Methodologically, the study employs a process tracing approach to uncover the sequential dynamics through which neoliberal ideas were reproduced, and a systematic documentary analysis to code and analyze official reports, evaluations, and policy statements. Findings show that the crises were framed not as failures of neoliberalism but as “external shocks” or “implementation gaps,” allowing institutions to repackage long standing neoliberal prescriptions—such as structural reforms, debt sustainability, targeted social protection, and private sector led development—as crisis response strategies. Furthermore, monitoring mechanisms and conditionalities ensured the institutionalization of these recommendations. The study concludes that the resilience of neoliberalism in international development is not mere policy continuity but the result of an adaptive process through which institutions reinterpret crises, rearticulate policy norms, and reinforce compliance structures. This highlights the need for deeper scrutiny of the discursive and institutional power that shapes global development governance.