Technical Assistance Evaluation Program Findings Of Evaluations And Updated Program

This paper is the third to be issued under the Fund's Technical Assistance Evaluation Program, which was launched in FY 2003. It reports on the findings of five completed evaluations, and updates the program of evaluations for FY 2007–2009. The completed evaluations featured in this paper are: (i) an evaluation of technical assistance provided by the Legal Department to Indonesia related to the strengthening of the commercial courts and the implementation of the bankruptcy law; and (ii) evaluations of technical assistance delivered by the Monetary and Financial Systems Department to Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Kosovo to strengthen capacity in the financial sector.

The Kyrgyz Republic -- Joint Economic Assessment: Reconciliation, Recovery and Reconstruction; Prepared by the Asian Development Bank, International Monetary Fund, and The World Bank; With the participation of Eurasian Development Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, European Commission, International Finance Corporation, and The United Nations

CARTAC, the second of the regional technical assistance centers, was created with singular emphasis on ownership of technical assistance by the beneficiary countries. To this end, it was structured as a UNDP project with the IMF as Executing Agency and with a Steering Committee empowered to give strategic guidance to the program and select its senior staff from short lists provided by the IMF. With the spread of the RTAC modality, the IMF has sought to bring the Centers' activities within the ambit of overall resource planning for technical assistance, ensure consistency with the institution's view on priorities for technical assistance in the countries concerned, and tighten quality control through backstopping. This has created the potential for conflict with the relative independence that CARTAC has enjoyed from its inception. The conclusion in this report, however, is that alignment with the IMF does not necessarily undermine country ownership and that the Steering Committee can play a pivotal role in defusing any tension that may arise.

CARTAC, the second of the regional technical assistance centers, was created with singular emphasis on ownership of technical assistance by the beneficiary countries. To this end, it was structured as a UNDP project with the IMF as Executing Agency and with a Steering Committee empowered to give strategic guidance to the program and select its senior staff from short lists provided by the IMF. With the spread of the RTAC modality, the IMF has sought to bring the Centers' activities within the ambit of overall resource planning for technical assistance, ensure consistency with the institution's view on priorities for technical assistance in the countries concerned, and tighten quality control through backstopping. This has created the potential for conflict with the relative independence that CARTAC has enjoyed from its inception. The conclusion in this report, however, is that alignment with the IMF does not necessarily undermine country ownership and that the Steering Committee can play a pivotal role in defusing any tension that may arise.

Key Messages • The Iraq Subaccount is a good example of donor coordination as expressed in the Paris Declaration. • Overall, the TAs funded from the Iraq TA Subaccount were successful, relevant, efficient and effective. • Ensuring long-term sustainability requires maintaining an adequate the level of TA activity in the future. • There were instances where more pro-active donor coordination was needed to build synergies to achieve development results. • While the offsite modality was fairly effective and cost efficient and delivered value for money, the limits of this model will be stretched as IMF moves from policy and operational advice and training to greater emphasis on supporting the implementation of policies and procedures. • The Fund’s internal monitoring needs to be strengthened, particularly the TA Information Management System. Reforms in this area are on track, supported by Fund management, and improvements are expected by 1 May 2008. • The Fund’s TA evaluation framework needs to be strengthened by instituting a system of self assessments of all completed TAs and developing guidelines for the ex-post evaluation of TAs. Work in these areas is planned. • The Fund delivered slightly more internally funded TA to Iraq than originally planned.

Technical assistance is one of the key services provided by the IMF to member countries—particularly lower income countries. It covers a wide set of activities, from technical assistance to support IMF policy advice to longer-term assistance to support countries’ institutional development. This evaluation report examines the relevance and effectiveness of IMF technical assistance, and derives recommendations for both IMF management and the Executive Board.

This chapter presents policy statement on IMF technical assistance (TA) programs. The TA programs provide a cooperative framework for the sharing of knowledge and international experience, in a lasting manner, with member countries. The IMF seeks to provide technical assistance as efficiently and effectively as possible in its core substantive areas of competency namely macroeconomic policy formulation and management among others. Technical assistance is provided in a variety of forms. These include IMF staff missions from headquarters; the placement of experts for periods ranging from a few months to a few years. Technical assistance is provided only when requested by a country's authorities. Since the demand for such assistance normally exceeds the resources available from the IMF, a number of considerations are considered in prioritizing country requests. The IMF encourages member countries who have not yet done so to consider providing such complementary financial support to enhance the resources available for technical assistance, preferably in a manner that is as unrestricted as possible.

This paper sets out a framework for streamlined and strengthened procedures for the wider dissemination of technical assistance-related information ("TA Information"). On the basis of this framework, management intends to issue guidelines to the staff setting forth these new procedures.