Topical Trust Funds—The New Assistance Vanguard

Posted on March 29, 2010 by iMFdirect

By Alfred Kammer

The IMF has begun implementing a new approach to financing its technical assistance by creating a series of topical trust funds that bring together interested donors.

The idea behind the new topical trust funds is to support broader initiatives on policy topics and engage donors on a broader, longer-term, and more strategic basis.

Let me illustrate this with two examples of trust fund programs that we are currently developing. A program on Tax Policy and Administration aims at helping countries mobilize more domestic resources in support of investment toward reaching the Millennium Development Goals, while also reducing their aid dependency.

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Filed under: Africa, Economic Crisis, Low-income countries | Tagged: , , , | 2 Comments »

Help in the Neighborhood: ‘Just a Phone Call Away’

Posted on March 25, 2010 by iMFdirect

By Alfred Kammer

Regional technical assistance centers have gradually evolved to play a major role in IMF technical assistance. These centers, which are largely donor financed, have become important vehicles for helping countries carry out economic reforms.

Their objective is to assist countries in designing and implementing their poverty reduction and broader developmental strategies and help countries integrate into the world economy.

For example, they help strengthen public financial management, and so improve governance and transparency, facilitating donors’ use of budget support instruments. They help improve tax and customs administration, providing an environment that is more conducive to investment and growth, increasing the resource envelope for poverty reducing spending and reducing the opportunities for corruption. At the same time, such reforms facilitate trade and enable countries to take better advantage of the forces of globalization.

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Filed under: Africa, Asia, concessional lending, Economic Crisis, International Monetary Fund, Latin America, Low-income countries | Tagged: , , , , , | 2 Comments »

More Asian Geese Ready to Fly

Posted on March 22, 2010 by iMFdirect

By Anoop Singh

(Version in 日本語)

Like geese flying in formation, the successive waves of Asian countries achieving economic takeoff and emerging or developed market status, has been likened to those migratory birds in flight.  If this model is accurate, more Asian geese are set to join the flock of economically successful nations.

The “Flying Geese Paradigm” or ganko keitai was first conceived of  by Japanese economist, Kaname Akamatsu in the 1930s as a way of explaining East Asian industrial development.  According to Akamatsu, the lead goose in the formation, was Japan.  The second tier consisted of newly industrialized economies—South Korea, Taiwan Province of China, Singapore, and Hong Kong SAR.  Following hot on their tails were the ASEAN countries, such as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.  More recent additions to the flock are China and India

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Filed under: Asia, concessional lending, Economic Crisis, Globalization, growth, IMF, International Monetary Fund, LICs, Low-income countries, Multilateral Cooperation | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

IMF Opens Up: Partnerships with Donors a Win-Win

Posted on March 18, 2010 by iMFdirect

By Alfred Kammer

I would like to talk about one of the IMF’s core mandates that is highly successful but rarely grabs headlines: technical assistance for capacity building.

Although less glamorous than the surveillance and lending operations of the Fund, for many countries these advisory services in areas such as macroeconomic policy, public financial management, tax policy and revenue administration, financial sector supervision, or statistics are indispensable. They help IMF member countries identify weaknesses in policies and institutional frameworks, develop concrete reform proposals and strategies, and put together the nuts and bolts for translating the IMF’s policy advice into concrete implementation of reforms.

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Filed under: Africa, IMF, International Monetary Fund, Low-income countries, Multilateral Cooperation | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Rethinking the IMF’s Mandate: Asking for Your Views

Posted on March 14, 2010 by iMFdirect

By Reza Moghadam

The IMF is rethinking its role in the post-crisis world to ensure it is working most effectively for its 186 member countries, and helping them avoid another global recession, with all that implies for trade, jobs, and living standards.

At the IMF-World Bank meetings in Istanbul in October 2009, the IMF was called on by its policy steering committee to rethink its mandate. The IMFC wanted to ensure that the IMF is able to cover―and I quote here from the communiqué that was issued in October 2009―“the full range of macro and financial sector policies that bear on macroeconomic global stability.”

The conclusions of this work will be discussed at our upcoming Annual Meetings in Washington D.C. The issues are rather complex, as you can imagine. We will be issuing a series of papers for discussion by the IMF’s Executive Board in the coming months. Our first discussion paper was published on February 26.

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Filed under: Annual Meetings, G-20, IMF, International Monetary Fund, Multilateral Cooperation | Tagged: , , , , , | 3 Comments »

This Time It’s Different

Posted on March 12, 2010 by iMFdirect

By Dominique Strauss-Kahn,

Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund

My final destination in this week’s visit to Africa was Zambia, where I sought the views not just of the government but also of the people—in a town hall with civil society, students, and the media. Zambia has one of the highest economic growth rates in sub-Saharan Africa: 6.3 percent in 2009 and the outlook for 2010 appears positive.
While recognizing that Zambia, just like Kenya and South Africa, has its own unique characteristics, I have pulled together some common threads from what I have been hearing in Africa over the past several days.

Filed under: Africa, concessional lending, Debt Relief, Economic Crisis, Financial Crisis, Globalization, growth, International Monetary Fund, Low-income countries, Multilateral Cooperation | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Something New Out of Africa: A Global Player

Posted on March 10, 2010 by iMFdirect

By Dominique Strauss-Kahn,

Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund

The sense of African energy and dynamism that I described during my visit to Kenya is reinforced strongly here in South Africa. And it’s not just World Cup fever—though there are plenty of signs of that too.

By some estimates, close to 10 million people are expected to visit South Africa this summer for the football (soccer) extravaganza—a further boost to its economy and its image in the world. South Africa is a global player.

This country has long been seen as the growth hub in the south and eastern part of the continent. But this past year, as a member of the G-20 group of nations, South Africa has come to be seen as much more–an emerging market, yes. And now also an influence on how global decisions are shaped. This is a new role for Africa in the world—and a new way for Africa to be seen by the world.

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Filed under: Africa, G-20, Globalization | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Africa Is Back

Posted on March 9, 2010 by iMFdirect

By Dominique Strauss-Kahn,

Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund

In the wake of the global financial crisis, there is a fresh energy in Sub-Saharan Africa–and a broad consensus on the road ahead. Above all, there is the strong sense that Africa’s destiny will be driven by Africans, not by others.

That at least is my initial feeling after two days of dialogue in Kenya with President Kibaki and government officials, civil society leaders and trade unionists, academics and students, and ordinary Kenyans. “Africa is back” is how I described it in a live TV debate in Nairobi with Prime Minister Odinga,  Minister of Finance Kenyatta, Nobel Laureate Wangari Mathai, Transparency International’s Akere Muna and my friend, Bob Geldof. 

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Filed under: Africa, concessional lending, Economic Crisis, Financial Crisis, Fiscal Stimulus, growth, IMF, LICs, Low-income countries | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

IMF—Delivering on Promises to Africa

Posted on March 7, 2010 by iMFdirect

By Dominique Strauss-Kahn,

Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund

This week, I’m on my third visit to sub-Saharan Africa within a year. And what a difference a year has made!

This time last year, Africa was swept up into the vortex of the global financial crisis. The global recession struck Africa through several channels—exports collapsed, banks ran into trouble as non-performing loans grew, and investment diminished. Average growth in sub-Saharan Africa fell to 2 percent in 2009 from 5.6 percent the previous year.

But improved policies in the face of the crisis helped the continent get through the storm better than expected and at the IMF we anticipate that Africa will see a relatively quick recovery, with average growth bouncing back to 4½ percent this year and 5½ percent in 2011. African countries were able to take appropriate measures to mitigate the turbulence because policies before the crisis were good, allowing them to build reserves, cut debt, and open up fiscal space to combat the recession.

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Filed under: Africa, concessional lending, Economic Crisis, Financial Crisis, Fiscal Stimulus, growth, IMF, LICs, Low-income countries, recession | Tagged: , , , , | 3 Comments »

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