Policy Papers

This supplement provides background information on various aspects of capacity development (CD) for the main Board paper, <a href="/external/np/pp/eng/2013/052113.pdf">The Fund’s Capacity Development Strategy—Better Policies through Stronger Institutions.</a> It is divided into nine notes or sections, each focused on a different topic covered in the main paper. Section A explores the importance of institutions for growth, and the role the Fund can play in building institutions. Section B presents stylized facts about how the landscape for CD has changed since the late 1990s. Section C discusses the difficulties of analyzing CD data because of measurement issues. Section D provides a longer-term perspective on how Fund CD has responded to member needs. Section E contains information on previous efforts to prioritize CD, assesses Regional Strategy Notes (RSNs) and country pages, and suggests ways to strengthen RSNs, including by using the Fund’s surveillance products. Section F compares the technical assistance (TA) funding model proposed in the 2011 <a href="/external/np/pp/eng/2011/101911.pdf>Report of the Task Force on the Fund’s Technical Assistance Strategy</a> to the model proposed in the main paper.2 Section G describes the current monitoring and evaluation practices used at the Fund for TA and training. Section H provides recommendations to increase synergies between TA and external training for country authorities, as well as synergies between TA and internal training for Fund staff. Last, Section I discusses the revolution in online learning.