Questionnaire for Mission Chiefs

This questionnaire is being sent to all country mission chiefs. Questions 1–14 are for all countries, while questions 15–24 are only for program countries. The results of the survey will serve as input to the upcoming board paper on IMF Engagement on Social Spending: A Strategic Framework, which is central to management response to the IEO Report on The IMF and Social Protection. Click on hyperlink for Scoping Note. The main purpose of the survey is to assess the nature and extent of country teams’ engagement on social spending issues in their work and collaboration with external institutions on these issues.

Most of the questions can be answered very quickly. Where relevant, please highlight aspects and experiences that you consider important and noteworthy. In answering the questions, please feel free to provide links to information on the internet or notes/presentations that you or your team may have prepared related to social safeguard policies and social spending issues in general. Your response will be a very valuable input to the development of the strategic framework.

Survey of Mission Chiefs

Please note that for the purposes of this questionnaire and the Board paper, social spending is defined as spending on 1) basic health, 2) basic education, and 3) social protection (which consists of social insurance and social assistance). Social insurance policies (e.g., unemployment insurance and pensions) aim at protecting populations from shocks that can adversely impact household incomes and welfare, and are typically financed by contributions and payroll taxes. Social assistance policies (e.g., universal and targeted transfers) aim at protecting households from poverty, and are typically financed by general government revenues.

• 1. Your department: ______________________

• 2. Mission chief for [country]: ______________________

• 3. Start date of assignment ______________________

• 4. Type of Fund engagement during your assignment:

  • a) Surveillance

  • b) Program/near program. Please specify program type, Start Year and End Year (if applicable)

• 5. Do you assess social spending issues to be macro-critical for your country (affecting or having the potential to affect, domestic or external stability, or global stability, as defined in “Guidance Note for Surveillance under Article IV consultations”)?

  • a) Yes

  • b) No

• 6. Why is social spending macro-critical for your country? (check all options that you assess to be macro-critical)

  • a) Current social spending pressures are putting fiscal sustainability at risk

  • b) Future social spending pressures are expected to put fiscal sustainability at risk

  • c) Social spending is crowding out other important public spending thus creating risks for internal or external stability or growth.

  • d) Lack of adequate social spending is a risk to social and/or political stability.

  • e) The country is facing significant challenges due to population ageing.

  • f) Significant/increasing social spending needs due to high population growth.

  • g) Significant/increasing social spending needs due to conflict and/or refugees. h) Significant/increasing social spending needs due to natural disasters.

  • i) Social spending is inefficient (too much spending, but very little social outcomes).

  • j) Social spending has significant adverse impacts on incentives e.g. affecting labor market participation.

  • k) Social spending is key for achieving the authorities’ distributional objectives.

  • l) The country has large human capital gaps (may include SDG commitments)– scaled up education spending is needed.

  • m) The country has large human capital gaps (may include SDG commitments)– scaled up health spending is needed.

  • n) The country has large social protection gaps (may include SDG commitments)– scaled up social protection is needed.

  • o) Scaled up or significantly reformed social protection is needed to protect against the shocks of technological change (e.g., gig economy).

  • p) Scaled up or significantly reformed education spending is needed to adapt to technological change.

  • q) The country is implementing major reforms of social spending (e.g. move towards universal basic income, pension reform, healthcare reform, etc.) that may have macroeconomic consequences.

  • r) Other (please specify)

• 7. Has the team recommended reforms in the area of social spending, including introduction and/or modification of social protection schemes, reforms in health and/or education spending?

  • a) Yes

  • b) No

• 8. If yes to Q7, have your recommendations implied the following? (check all that apply)

  • a) Introduction/expansion of targeted schemes that require some type of means test

  • b) Reduction of targeted schemes that require some type of means test

  • c) Introduction/expansion of schemes that do not require some type of means test (including universal schemes)

  • d) Reduction of schemes that do not require some type of means test (including universal schemes)

• 9. For any option (a)-(d) above that is checked: has this recommendation been controversial with the authorities or given rise to criticism by other stakeholders in the country?

  • a) Yes

  • b) No

• 10. Whose analysis/resources have you relied on as your main source? (check all that apply)

  • a) Team’s own resources

  • b) Analysis conducted by another department. (please specify which below)

  • c) Technical Assistance. (please specify the department(s) below)

  • d) Support and tools provided by another department. (please specify the department(s) below)

  • e) Analysis conducted by the World Bank. (please specify below)

  • f) Analysis conducted by international institutions (e.g. AfDB, ADB, IADB, ILO, OECD, Unicef, EU). (please specify which institution(s) below)

  • g) Authorities’ analysis h) Academics’ analysis i) Other (please specify)

• 11. Please check the appropriate boxes to indicate if the country team had explicit discussions with the listed institution on issues related to social spending (or other social policies) and if such discussions have been helpful. (Note: social assistance includes targeted and universal transfers to households; social insurance includes pensions, unemployment benefits; disability benefits.)

	Social Spending
	Social assistance		Social insurance		Health		Education		Other – such as energy subsidies and/or food subsidies (please specify)
Discussions with the institution	Worked well	Did not work well	Worked well	Did not work well	Worked well	Did not work well	Worked well	Did not work well	Worked well	Did not work well
a) World Bank
b) OECD
c) AfDB
d) IADB
e) ADB
f) EBRD
g) IsDB
h) NDB
i) AIIB
j) other regional development banks
k) ILO
l) UN agencies (e.g.,UNDP, UNICEF)
m) Local development partners (e.g., EU, DfID)
n) NGOs or CSOs
o) Academics
p) Other. Please specify

View Table

	Social Spending
	Social assistance		Social insurance		Health		Education		Other – such as energy subsidies and/or food subsidies (please specify)
Discussions with the institution	Worked well	Did not work well	Worked well	Did not work well	Worked well	Did not work well	Worked well	Did not work well	Worked well	Did not work well
a) World Bank
b) OECD
c) AfDB
d) IADB
e) ADB
f) EBRD
g) IsDB
h) NDB
i) AIIB
j) other regional development banks
k) ILO
l) UN agencies (e.g.,UNDP, UNICEF)
m) Local development partners (e.g., EU, DfID)
n) NGOs or CSOs
o) Academics
p) Other. Please specify

• 12. How do you interact with other institutions/organization and leverage external expertise?

  • a) Bilateral discussions with experts (e.g. WB managers and economists) at HQ

  • b) Bilateral discussions with experts (e.g. WB anagers and economists) during missions

  • c) Bilateral discussions with experts (e.g. WB managers and economists) by ResRep

  • d) Collaborating in analytical projects

  • e) Other (please specify)

• 13. In your experience, indicate which of the following obstacles you have faced when cooperating/trying to cooperate with other institutions/organization on social protection issues. (check all that apply and specify which IDI or other institution (as CSOs or academics) they refer to)?

  • a) Lack of country-level involvement (country presence) by the other institutions/organizations

  • b) Lack of information on who does what (information on work plans and engagement by other institutions)

  • c) Lack of interest from the other institutions to cooperate with the Fund

  • d) Conceptual differences in understanding/approaches to social spending issues

  • e) Differences in institutional focus (e.g. improving social outcomes versus fiscal sustainability).

  • f) Other (please specify)

• 14. What would improve your cooperation with other external institutions/organizations? (check all that apply and specify which IDI or other institution (as CSOs or academics) they refer to)

  • a) Established discussion channels/cooperation processes

  • b) More extensively using informal contact/discussion channels

  • c) Data sharing

  • d) Other (please specify)

  • e) Current set up works quite well/well enough

• 15. Indicate which of the following tools your team has used.

  • a) Expenditure Assessment Tool (EAT)

  • b) FAD’s long-term pension and health expenditure projections

  • c) FAD’s Pension Reform Template

  • d) FAD’s Income Inequality (Gini) Database

  • e) FAD’s Energy Subsidies tools and templates

  • f) Macroeconomic and Distributional Implications of Fiscal Policies model developed by SPR

  • g) CEQ (Commitment to Equity project) incidence analysis methodology (in cooperation with CEQ)

  • h) WB ASPIRE database

  • i) WB PovcalNet analysis

  • j) WB Poverty and Social Impact Analysis (PSIA)

  • k) Interagency Social Protection Assessments (ISPA) tools

  • l) The SDG Indicators Global Database

  • m) The ILO’s social protection platform

  • n) Other (please specify)

• 16. Have you found the tool(s) selected above have been helpful?

  • a) Yes

  • b) No

• 17. Have the following challenges prevented you from covering social spending issues more fully? (check all that apply)

  • a) Covering social spending is not within the tasks mandated to the team

  • b) Lack of expertise within the team

  • c) Inability to draw on outside expertise

  • d) Cannot do adequate analysis because of data quality/availability

  • e) Competing priorities

  • f) The authorities are not interested

  • g) The authorities are sensitive to the topic

  • h) Achieving progress is unlikely anyway because of capacity constraints in the country’s public administration

  • i) Another institution (please specify) is taking the lead on social spending issues and there is no need for the Fund’s engagement in this area

  • j) Other (please specify)

• 18. In what areas would you find it helpful to have more tools available to conduct analysis? (check all that apply)

  • a) Health

  • b) Education

  • c) Pensions

  • d) Unemployment insurance

  • e) Social assistance transfers to households (such as unconditional and conditional cash transfers)

  • f) Other (please specify)

• 19. For each option a-f above that is checked, ask: list any tools you would find useful to conduct analysis (e.g. expenditure benchmarking tool)?

---END OF QUESTIONNAIRE FOR NON-PROGRAM COUNTRIES

…Questions for program countries

• 20. In your view, were program objectives consistent with the authorities’ social priorities? (select one)

  • a) Strongly agree

  • b) Agree

  • c) Neutral

  • d) Disagree

  • e) Strongly disagree

  • f) Not applicable

• 21. Does the program entail fiscal consolidation?

  • a) The program entails fiscal consolidation.

  • b) The program entails fiscal expansion.

  • c) The program is fiscally neutral.

• 22. Does the program seek to protect or expand social spending?

  • a) Yes, key social spending is maintained. Then choose from (in nominal terms/ in real per capita terms/as a share of GDP/as a share of total public spending).

  • b) Yes, key social spending is increased. Then choose from (in nominal terms/ in real per capita terms/as a share of GDP/as a share of total public spending).

  • c) No. If no, please specify reasons______________

• 23. Does the program have quantitative/structural conditionality on social spending? (check all that apply)

  • a) No

  • b) Yes, there are indicative targets (ITs) on a social spending floor

  • c) Yes, there are quantitative performance criteria (floors) (PCs) on a social spending floor

  • d) Yes, there is quantitative conditionality on specific areas, (please specify)

  • e) Yes, there are measures as commitments in the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP)

  • f) Yes, there are measures as structural benchmarks (SBs).

• 24. If the program includes quantitative/structural conditionality, what is included in ‘key social spending’?

  • a) Pension benefits

  • b) Unemployment benefits

  • c) Disability benefits

  • d) Social assistance benefits

  • e) Health benefit

  • f) Education spending

  • g) Other (please specify)

• 25. If the program has conditionality on social spending, how effective has the conditionality on social spending been?

  • a) The measures are met most of the time.

  • b) The measures are not met most of the time.

• 26. If during the program period the country authorities missed one or more social spending conditionality (if answer b) to question 25), please indicate the main reason(s). Please select all that apply:

  • a) Shortfall in external donor financing flows

  • b) Shortfall in government revenue (unrelated to external financing)

  • c) Lack of country ownership

  • d) Social spending conditionality defined too broadly

  • e) Social spending target became irrelevant

  • f) Other. Please specify:___________________

  • g) Not applicable

• 27. Program conditionality on social spending is an effective way to protect such spending during an IMF program in your country

  • a) Strongly agree

  • b) Agree

  • c) Neutral

  • d) Disagree

  • e) Strongly disagree

  • f) Don’t know

  • g) Not applicable

• 28. In your view, could the design/implementation of the social spending target in your country be improved to increase compliance rate?

  • a) Yes, the design could be improved.

  • b) Yes, the implementation could be improved.

  • c) No

• 29. If you answered a) to Q28, please indicate how could the design of the social spending target be improved? Please select all that apply:

  • a) More targeted specification of spending floors (e.g. targeting few or most critical sectors and line ministries)

  • b) Revisiting and revising these targets more frequently

  • c) Seeking expertise from the World Bank and other development partners

  • d) Adopting contingency plans to preserve spending from fiscal shocks

  • e) Including adjustors in the design of target to account for external shocks (e.g. shortfall in external assistance)

  • f) Actively seeking and incorporate authorities’ inputs in designing of the targets

  • g) Improving the quality of fiscal data

  • h) Making the target a binding conditionality (e.g. performance criteria) i) Other (please specify)

• 30. If you answered b) to Q28, please indicate how could the implementation of the social spending target be improved? Please select all that apply:

  • a) More detailed specification of spending floors by type of spending.

  • b) Seeking feedback from the World Bank and other development partners on implementation challenges in the country before conditionality is defined

  • c) Seeking expertise from the World Bank and other development who have more expertise on implementation issues during the program

  • d) Strengthening capacity building focused on improving administrative capacity for social spending to accompany the delivery of the reform process

  • e) Other (please specify)