International Monetary Fund (IMF)
1. Since the adoption of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, has the governing body of your organization taken (or will it take) any decisions or new strategies to guide the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs? If any, please provide a brief summary below, including the overarching vision of your organization.
The IMF is committed, within the scope of its mandate, to the global partnership for sustainable development. The IMF has launched a number of initiatives to enhance its support for its member countries in crucial ways as they pursue the SDGs. Specifically, the IMF:
- has expanded financial support for low-income developing countries, including: (i) a 50 percent increase in access norms and limits for all IMF concessional financing; (ii) zero percent interest rate on a permanent basis for IMF lending under the Rapid Credit Facility , (ii) an increase in access limits under the emergency financing instruments for countries hit by large natural disasters; and (iv) an extension of the zero percent interest rate to all other IMF concessional loans until at least end-2018. A comprehensive review of IMF concessional facilities is underway and expected to be completed this year;
- is scaling up support for developing countries to boost domestic revenue mobilization, including by collaborating with other international organizations through the new Platform for Collaboration on Tax . The IMF provides technical assistance on tax policy and administration to over 100 countries every year and is scaling up its support for developing countries, including, where needed, the coverage of international tax issues;
- is providing support—through its Infrastructure Policy Support Initiative—to member countries seeking to increase public investment in infrastructure. The initiative seeks to deepen the IMF's macroeconomic policy advice and capacity building work to help countries tackle large infrastructure gaps without endangering public debt sustainability. Several such pilot programs are underway. Moreover, the IMF's new debt limits policy adds flexibility to manage financing needs to support growth and investment while maintaining prudent debt levels. The IMF is also reforming the debt sustainability framework for low-income developing countries to better guide countries' borrowing decisions and maintain public debt on a sustainable path;
- is bolstering its support to fragile and conflict states to address their specific challenges and wide and persistent capacity building needs, including through the new Capacity Building Framework , which seeks to support institution building goals, strengthen outcome monitoring, and enhance coordination with other partners;
- is deepening and operationalizing its work on inequality and gender through a pilot approach. Under the initiative, inequality and gender related issues have been analyzed in more than 60 case studies and about 30 additional cases are in the pipeline.
- is promoting deeper, more inclusive and more stable financial systems, through policy advice and TA. For example, the Financial Sector Stability Fund supports the delivery and follow-up TA and training through Financial Sector Stability Reviews (FSSRs), and developing balance sheet data and financial soundness indicators.
- has stepped up support to countries vulnerable to natural disasters and climate change and is paying increasing attention to adaptation issues. In this regard, the IMF and WB have launched a joint Climate Change Policy Assessment (CCPA) providing country-specific frameworks assessing preparedness to climate change, climate mitigation and adaptation plans, and risk management strategies, with initial pilots including Seychelles and St. Lucia. Other country consultations examined carbon mitigation policies (Jamaica, Seychelles) and reforming energy policies (Sri Lanka, Vietnam).
3.3 Data and statistical capacity building:
The IMF has been contributing to the global efforts to monitor the implementation of the SDGs and serves as the custodian agency for four SDG indicators using its databases on macroeconomic and financial statistics. These include (i) the Financial Access Survey (FAS) for reporting on the number of commercial bank branches and ATMs per 100,000 adults to measure financial inclusion (SDG indicator 8.10.1); (ii) the Financial Soundness Indicator (FSI) database to provide several measures for financial sector regulation (SDG indicator 10.5.1); (iii) the Government Finance Statistics (GFS) database to measure total government revenue as a proportion of GDP, by source (SDG indicator 17.1.1); and (iv) the GFS database to measure the proportion of domestic budget funded by domestic taxes (SDG indicator 17.1.2.).
The IMF's Statistics Department has a strong track record in providing extensive and well-targeted capacity development (CD) to help countries enhance their statistical capacities in the area of macroeconomic and financial statistics. This work, which currently accounts for more than half of the department's output and makes the IMF one of the top five providers of statistics CD, has been buttressed by the IMF's standard-setting role across several statistical topical areas.
With more challenging international environment emanating from the need to monitor the implementation of the SDGs and to help improve countries' economic policy-making, the IMF has recalibrated its statistics CD strategy. In addition to CD being provided through its own resources, the IMF's Regional Technical Assistance Centers, and technical assistance projects funded by bilateral partners, the IMF has recently also set up two multi-partner trust funds to provide technical assistance and training to low- and lower middle-income countries world-wide to respond to these new challenges. These are:
- the Financial Sector Stability Fund, which under its statistics module helps countries (i) to compile and disseminate FSIs for use in financial sector analysis, policy formulation, and SDG monitoring; and (ii) implement the balance sheet approach to help identify economic risks and vulnerabilities countries are facing; and
- the Data for Decisions (D4D) Fund, which will have four modules with a strong emphasis on operational data to provide
more and better data to policy makers for evidence-based decision-making. Work under the four modules will also be conducive to SDG monitoring, either directly benefiting the four SDG indicators for which the IMF was chosen as custodian agency (see above) or indirectly by enhancing the quality of key macroeconomic datasets that are linked to many of the 17 SDGs (especially the measurement of GDP). In addition, one module aims to roll out a new online learning curriculum providing training in eight fundamental macroeconomic statistical areas, which will be instrumental in developing compilers' expertise, with expected positive externalities to other statistical areas (e.g., social and environmental statistics). Finally, one module will offer advice to countries' national statistical systems to standardize, streamline, and automate their statistical infrastructure, thereby enabling countries to better respond to the more challenging data environment.
4.2 Contributing to policy/background briefs for the HLPF:
- Reporting on progress on our commitments via the SG reports as requested
- Leading on the drafting of a number of chapters (Domestic Public Resources, Debt and Debt Sustainability, Addressing Systemic Issues) and contributing to other chapters of the annual IATF report, which feeds into the HLPF reporting on 2030 Agenda reporting
4.4 Organizing side evens or speaking at the HLPF:
Co-hosting a side event during the 2016 HLPF on ‘The Cost of Corruption and Mitigating Strategies'
5. How has your organization cooperated with other UN system organizations to achieve coherence and synergies in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs? In this regard, has your organization launched or intend to launch any joint programmes or projects in collaboration with other UN entities? Are there any results or lessons you would like to highlight that might help improve the design and impact of such efforts? Has your organization participated in any of the following coordination systemwide mechanisms or any other relevant platform - CEB, UNDG, EC-ESA Plus, RCMs, UN-Energy, UN-Water, UN-Ocean, IAEG, IATT? Please specify which and indicate any suggestions you may have about improving collaborations within and across these mechanisms/platforms:
The IMF has partnered with the World Bank Group in a number of areas to support the implementation and achievement of the 2030 Agenda. Additionally, the Fund is part of the Platform for Collaboration on Tax with the OECD, UN and WB, which aims to better support countries in the challenges they face in relation to their tax systems. The Fund participates regularly in CEB meetings and ECESA+ meetings. We have no comments on how to improve collaboration within these groupings.
6. How has your organization engaged with stakeholder groups, both in supporting implementation at the country, regional and global levels, and within your own organization? If yes, please provide main highlights, including any lessons learned:
Yes. The Fund engages its member countries in key SDG issues of inclusion and environmental sustainability. The IMF is weaving lessons from policy-oriented research on a number of development issues into its operational work in a targeted manner. These include:
- the role of diversification and structural transformation in sustained growth in developing countries—and the policies needed to support this change. Key policies include those to strengthen infrastructure in a cost-effective manner, support financial deepening, and boost agricultural productivity;
- tackling income and gender inequality and promoting economic and financial inclusion by promoting job creation, enhancing the redistributive role of fiscal policy in an efficient manner, and boosting access to financial services while preserving financial stability; and
- promoting environmental sustainability by reforming energy and enhancing resilience to climate-related events.
The Fund has adopted a pilot-based approach to explore emerging macro-critical issues, deepen its existing work and sharpen its bilateral surveillance in a range of areas that are relevant for the successful implementation of the SDGs. The nine pilot initiatives currently underway cover macro-financial issues, fiscal space, macro-structural issues, domestic revenue mobilization, international taxation, inequality, gender, energy/climate, and infrastructure. These initiatives will be expanded to the broader membership in a selective manner.
The IMF also engages on SDGs on a regular basis with Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), including more recently in the context of the inequality and gender pilot initiatives. For example, the IMF team for the Republic of Congo had constructive discussions on governance in the oil sector with CSOs, which helped design governance measures to reduce poverty and inequality. In Zambia, the inclusion of water and sanitation as part of social spending in the IMF-supported program drew on a recent CSOs' position paper on gender and inequality issues. The Fund also participated in a CSO policy forum organized by Oxfam during the 2017 Annual Meetings on their assessment of the Fund's inequality pilots experience, where the usefulness of ex-ante consultations with CSOs in the context of programs was highlighted, particularly in Ghana and Zambia.
7. Has your organization organized any conferences, forums or events designed to facilitate exchange of experience, peer and mutual learning? If yes, please provide a brief summary below and include lessons learned and gaps identified based on the outcomes of these events. Please also include any events you plan to organize in the coming years.
The IMF has organized several conferences, seminars and forums on the topics relevant to the SDGs, which are also extensively discussed during bilateral consultations with members and during the IMF Annual and Spring Meetings. A few examples of seminars include:
Regional Development: Fiscal Risks, Fiscal Space, and the Sustainable Development Goals
(IMF and JICA, JICA Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan February 1-2, 2017)
Financing for Development: The Way Forward (IMF-WB 2015 Spring meetings)
Seminar discussed the challenges of financing of the SDGs.
Making Macroeconomics Work for Women (IMF-WB, IMF-WB 2016 Annual meetings)
The seminar highlighted that achieving comprehensive economic development and reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require a decisive challenge to existing barriers to women's economic equality.
Towards 2030: Trends, Opportunities, Challenges, and Policies for Inclusive Growth (IMF-WB 2017 Annual Meetings). The conference focused on how demographics and automation will shape the economic landscape for developing countries over the next two decades; what job opportunities and challenges to inclusive growth and gender equality can these long-term trends create for these countries; and the role of policies.
Upcoming conference
First Global Conference of the Platform for Collaboration on Tax - Taxation and the Sustainable Development Goals (Organized with the World Bank, OECD, and UN; February 14-16, 2018, at the United Nations HQ, NYC).
8. Is there any other information you would like to share, including annual reports of your organization and any impact assessment or evaluation reports? If yes, please use the space below and attach the document(s). Please also use this space to provide any other information, comments or remarks you deem necessary:
Below are the key references on the IMF's support to the implementation of SDGs in member countries:
Board papers
IMF (2015a) Financing for Development: Revisiting the Monterrey Consensus, July 2015
IMF (2015b) Financing for Development: Enhancing the Financial Safety Net for Developing Countries
IMF (2015c) The Role of the IMF in Supporting the Implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda
IMF (2015d) The Managing Directors Statement on the Role of the Fund in Addressing Climate Change
Staff discussion notes
SDN/15/18 From Ambition to Execution: Policies in Support of Sustainable Development Goals
SDN/16/01: After Paris: Paris: Fiscal, Macroeconomic, and Financial Implications of Climate Change
9. In your view, what should a strategic plan for the UN system in support of the 2030 Agenda and SDGs look like? What key elements should it include and major challenges address in such a road map?
A strategic plan for the UN system in support of the 2030 could include the following key elements:
- Stimulating peer learning and disseminating experience through the international event such as forums, seminars and conferences.
- Monitoring the progress made by countries in the pursuit of the SDG objectives, to be frequently published through reports or the UN website.
- The main challenges could include: (i) weak implementation capacity and the poor data quality in many developing countries; (ii) additionality in financing for the SDGs (ensure that the funding for SDGs comes from additional resources and not reallocations)
10. Please indicate one or two endeavor or initiatives you suggest that the UN system organizations could undertake together to support the implementation of the SDGs between now and 2030:
Create an initiative to build country's capacity in producing and tracking SDGs indicators. This would require a coordinated approach among UN-specialized agencies and other international organizations.