IMF Archives: Finding Aids

African Department Records

Context

Name of Creator: African Department

Administrative/Biographical history: On April 10, 1961, the African Department was created when the F.Y. 1962 Budget was presented and approved by the Executive Board. Managing Director Per Jacobsson announced the proposal to establish an African Department when introducing the Budget. He indicated that the Department would deal with those African countries which would join the IMF in the future and those present African members that would choose to transfer to the new Department. Prior to this, K.A. Gbedemah, Governor for Ghana proposed the formation of an African Department at the 1960 Annual Meeting, and Executive Directors Ahmed Zaki Saad, United Arab Republic, and Soetikno Slamet, Indonesia, sent a memorandum in February 1961 to the Managing Director urging that the Department be created.

The Department was established with the condition that it be headed by an African, and that some of the staff would be recruited from Africa, which was consistent with the practices of other area departments. Jan Mládek was appointed Temporary Director until the appointment of an African in 1964, Hamzak Merghani of Sudan. The Directors of the Department in chronological order were: Jan Mládek (Temporary Director, 1961-1964); Hamzah Merghani (1964-1966); Mamoudou Touré (1967-1976); Justin Bevin Zulu (1976-1984); Alassane D. Ouattara (1984-1988); Mamoudou Touré (1988-1994); Mr. Evangelos A. Calamitsis (1994-1998); Goodall Edward Gondwe (1998-2002); and, Abdoulaye Bio-Tchané (2002-2008).

The primary functions of the Department at the time of its establishment were to advise management and the Executive Board on all matters concerning the economies and economic policies of the member countries in its area, to assist in the formulation of IMF policies in relation to these countries and to execute such policies. These functions have not changed much over time except that it is stated more specifically now that the Department is to provide macroeconomic policy advice to its member countries and to implement IMF policies in order to promote and preserve macroeconomic stability and improve the conditions for sustained economic growth. The principal activities at the time of establishment included: (1) advising on economic, financial, and political developments in the countries within its area which entails gathering and maintaining information on each member; (2) conducting the IMF's work with member countries in collaboration with functional departments; (3) playing a leading role in the formulation of IMF policies on member countries; (4) posting and guiding resident officers abroad; (5) cooperating with other departments in the review of general policy papers and conducting independent research and analysis on individual members or groups of area countries; (6) providing technical assistance through cooperation with interested departments and advising on the specific needs of countries with respect to technical assistance; and (7) cooperating with the World Bank and maintaining contact with other international and regional organizations. These activities have not greatly changed over time. Also, the Department's stated function and activities are similar to those for other area departments. In 1986, an eighth primary activity was added: (8) consulting with official and private creditors, as needed, on the financing of economic programs and the rescheduling of external debts of member countries.

The Department is composed of an Immediate Office and a number of area divisions. The Immediate Office is responsible for guiding, coordinating and reviewing the work of the area divisions, as well as for covering developments in larger regional organizations and for overall supervision of the research activities of the Department. Senior staff in the Immediate Office could be assigned to lead missions, but the division staff were regularly delegated to carry out the Department's work on missions to member countries. Beyond this, divisions carried out or supported the work of the Department mainly by maintaining a database on economic, financial, and political developments of African countries in order to guide advice and policy; and, by posting and guiding resident representatives and cooperating with other IMF departments in the oversight of technical assistance.

The organization of the Immediate Office remained the same over time, with one Director supported by Deputy or Assistant Directors and Advisors. However, the organization of the area divisions changed over time in order to balance the work demands that came with new members joining the IMF or in order to provide more focused regional surveillance. Initially in 1961 there were no area divisions. In 1963, the first three were created: East and Central African Division; Equatorial African and Malagasy Division; and, Northwest African Division. From 1964 to 1990, the Department went from five area divisions to twelve, and then shrank to eleven again in 2000. There were major reorganizations involving transfers of country assignments or the creation of new divisions in 1973, 1984, 1988, 1993, 2000 and 2004. In 2004, the Department was reorganized so as to create a Policy Wing, an Operation Wing and a Resource Management Wing in addition to the area divisions which were from then foreword referred to by number as opposed to geographic name (e.g. Division 1 contains Burundi, Rwanda, Seychelles, and Uganda). The Policy Wing contributes to the development of IMF policies on low-income countries, promotes and carries out work on regional issues, and conducts, coordinates and disseminates research on operationally-oriented cross-cutting policy issues. The Operations Wing organizes review work, develops the near- and medium-term country strategy for each country, designs country programs, and assesses and coaches mission leaders. The Resource Management Wing is responsible for optimizing the use of human, budgetary and capacity-building resources to the benefit of the Department's member countries. There are presently 11 area divisions overseeing 44 members in total.

Content and structure

Scope and content: Fonds contains records of the African Department created and/or maintained by its area divisions and Immediate Office. Many early records of the Department circa 1961-1965 were routed to the Central Files Collection. Area division records will be available shortly.

Conditions of Access and Use

Conditions governing access and reproduction: Contains closed material.

Language/script of material: English, French, Portuguese, Arabic, Spanish

Associated Materials

Related units of description: Central Files: O 250 and C Country Files for African member countries.

Notes

Note: The following countries transferred from the European Department: Morocco - October 1963; Tunisia - November 1963; Ghana - 1963; and South Africa - 1993. Egypt, Libya and Ethiopia were originally in the Middle Eastern Department; Egypt and Libya remained there but Ethiopia transferred to the African Department in 1980. In 1993, at the same time that South Africa was transferred from the European Department, the following countries were moved back to the Middle Eastern Department: Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia and Tunisia.

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