Effective follow-up is critical to ensuring that the IMF gets the full benefits of IEO evaluations. The focus is placed on the implementation of evaluation recommendations approved by the Executive Board, as laid out in a Management Implementation Plan (MIP).
In November 2016, the Executive Board approved the MIP for the evaluation Behind the Scenes with Data at the IMF. The discussion focused on the timing and procedures for the articulation of a long-term strategy for data and statistics, as proposed by the evaluation. The MIP indicated that this strategy will be drafted by a task force after broad consultations across the IMF and presented to the Executive Board no later than the end of 2017.
The MIP for the evaluation The IMF and the Crises in Greece, Ireland, and Portugal was approved by the Executive Board in February 2017. This plan emphasized the IMF’s ongoing efforts to strengthen the analytical underpinnings of its work, in order to minimize the room for political intervention in the IMF’s technical analysis. It committed staff to prepare Board papers on program design in currency union members (currently under preparation) and cooperation with regional financing arrangements (discussed by the Executive Board on July 26, 2017). It also provided for the preparation of a protocol for information sharing between the IEO and IMF staff, which would clarify the importance of staff’s cooperation and the principle of open communication. The protocol was recently agreed and issued to IMF staff for guidance.
Staff cooperation with the IEO is vital to the success of the IEO’s mandate. Management issued its first guidance on cooperation with the IEO in 2002, and recently updated it based on 15 years’ experience.
Key Points of the New Guidance Note
Staff are obliged to comply with IEO information requests, which are usually made in writing to department directors Staff are encouraged to provide the IEO with all information and documents they are aware of that would be pertinent to an evaluation, even if such information is not requested by the IEO
When contacted for an interview with the IEO, staff are required to accept and should share views openly and freely Staff also are encouraged to participate in IEO staff surveys
Limited exceptions to IEO information requests include: (i) information subject to attorney-client privilege; (ii) documents containing personal information about Fund employees or candidates for employment; and (iii) confidential communications that fall within management’s “zone of privacy “If staff are concerned that provision of a strictly confidential document responsive to a request would interfere with the Fund’s operations, it should be reported to the Strategy, Policy, and Review Department (SPR), which will seek a resolution with the IEO
At any time, staff can seek confidential clarification from the IEO contact person for the corresponding project, or by contacting the responsible senior staff in SPR who serve as a facilitator between the IEO and staff.
In March 2017, IMF staff presented the Executive Board with a High Level Status Report to the IEO Evaluation of Fund’s Recurring Issues. The report assessed the progress made in addressing five recurring issues identified by the IEO in its report on Recurring Issues from a Decade of Evaluation (IEO, 2014b): (i) Executive Board guidance and oversight; (ii) organizational silos; (iii) attention to risks and uncertainty; (iv) country and institutional context; and (v) evenhandedness. The report concludes that the Fund has made progress, while acknowledging that achieving the related objectives would require taking actions on an ongoing basis for an extended period. The question of the appropriate modality for future monitoring of these issues was left open, to be considered in the next external evaluation of the IEO, in the broader context of the mechanisms for monitoring follow-up on IEO recommendations.
In April 2017, the Executive Board approved the “Eighth Periodic Monitoring Report on the Status of Implementation Plans in Response to Board-Endorsed IEO Recommendations.” The report found that implementation of agreed actions had been somewhat uneven since the last report, with actions from more recent MIPs seeing more progress, while advancement on older ones was slower. Overall, the Executive Board considered that management and staff remained committed to the timely implementation of open actions.
Management Implementation Plan Status
Source: IMF, Eighth Periodic Monitoring Report.Management Implementation Plan Status
Source: IMF, Eighth Periodic Monitoring Report.Management Implementation Plan Status
Source: IMF, Eighth Periodic Monitoring Report.
