## Regional Capacity Development Centers

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**Canonical URL:** [Regional Capacity Development Centers](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/capacity-developement/brochures/rcdc-brochure-august-2025.pdf)

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### Overview
- The IMF’s seventeen Regional Capacity Development Centers (RCDCs) deliver tailor-made training and technical assistance to member countries.
- Centers respond quickly to unique and emerging country needs, leveraging IMF experience in tax and spending policy, public financial management, central banking and financial systems, statistics, macroeconomic modeling and forecasting, and governance.
- The global network offers:
  - Local and regional focus tailored to local priorities and responsive to emerging needs.
  - Demand-driven support and enduring partnership with prompt and flexible capacity development for key national institutions.
  - Peer-to-peer exchanges to support stronger regional integration and the exchange of good practices.
  - Engagement in fragile and conflict-affected states with long-term, well-tailored support.
- Contributing partners and host countries provide over 75 percent of the resources needed to operate the centers.
- The partnership structure pools resources from donors, member countries, other development partners and the IMF; contributing partners join steering committees that guide the centers’ work.

### Selected center findings and impacts
- CAPTAC-DR (Central America, Panama, and the Dominican Republic; Est. 2009)
  - In the context of an IMF lending program, supported Costa Rica in designing and implementing a single payment system for social benefits that centralizes social transfers and digitalized all beneficiary payments.
  - As of 2024, the system processes approximately 1 million payments a month, 60 percent of which benefit women, while expanding coverage to other social programs.
- CARTAC (Caribbean; Est. 2001)
  - Assisted 23 member countries and territories for more than 20 years.
  - Helped improve statistics in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union to align with the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual.
  - Supported the Guyana Revenue Authority in establishing a Large Taxpayer Division, contributing to an increase in tax revenues by US$210 million, or 4 percent of GDP.
- AFRITAC West (Regional Technical Assistance Center for West Africa; Est. 2003)
  - Assists 10 francophone countries.
  - Mauritania Customs reduced shipments requiring physical inspection from 60 percent to 15 percent in 2022, enhancing efficiency and increasing duties and taxes collected by over 15 percent.
- AFRITAC West 2 (Regional Technical Assistance Center for West Africa 2; Est. 2014)
  - Works in 6 anglophone and lusophone countries.
  - In 2023 introduced the IMF’s Fiscal Risk Toolkit in Sierra Leone; trained officials on data collection and SOE financial analysis to strengthen SOE oversight and fiscal transparency.
- JVI (Joint Vienna Institute; Est. 1992)
  - Offers training to officials from 31 member countries across Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Central Asia.
  - Trained more than 50,000 public officials historically.
  - In FY25, 1,045 participants attended a total of 42 IMF courses.
  - Supported the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina to upgrade analysis and forecasting capacity for more effective monetary policy.
- AFRITAC Central (Regional Technical Assistance Center for Central Africa; Est. 2012)
  - Supports 9 countries, many fragile and conflict affected.
  - Helped the Republic of Congo reform its budget process and introduce program-based budgeting, strengthening the budget’s role in economic and social development.
- AFRITAC East (Regional Technical Assistance Center for East Africa; Est. 2002)
  - Assists 8 member countries.
  - Supported Kenya and Rwanda to identify and quantify climate-related fiscal risks, strengthen public investment management, and implement climate budget tagging; enabled assessment of impacts on SOEs, PPPs, and infrastructure and supported IMF lending arrangement requirements.
- ATI (Africa Training Institute; Est. 2013)
  - Offers training to officials from 45 Sub-Saharan African countries.
  - Currently trains about 1,000 officials in nearly 40 courses and 20 training events annually, with a network of more than 9,000 alumni.
  - Supported Sierra Leone officials in implementing budgets aligned with IMF lending program and national development plan across five key ministries.
- AFRITAC South (Regional Technical Assistance Center for Southern Africa; Est. 2011)
  - Assists 13 countries.
  - In fiscal year 2024, updated customs selectivity criteria in Zimbabwe helped raise an extra US$10.8 million in revenues; business intelligence work led to assessments totaling US$53.4 million.
- CEF (Middle East Center for Economics and Finance; Est. 2004)
  - Offers courses for officials from 22 Arab League countries.
  - In 2022 supported Saudi Arabia’s financial inclusion efforts that helped the country exceed its target of 83 percent of adults owning a bank account.
  - Supported the Central Bank of Oman in exploring a central bank digital currency and provided comprehensive fintech regulation training.
- METAC (Middle East Regional Technical Assistance Center; Est. 2004)
  - Supports 14 member countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
  - Helped Morocco’s Bank Al-Maghrib develop and implement a new supervisory review process aligned with ECB standards, linking capital requirements to ratings to incentivize better risk management and governance.
- CCAMTAC (Caucasus, Central Asia, and Mongolia Regional Capacity Development Center; Est. 2021)
  - Assists 9 member countries.
  - In Uzbekistan, supported development of the interbank repo market; turnover grew from the equivalent of US$48.5 million in 2022 to US$21.7 billion in 2024 (up 447 times).
- SARTTAC (South Asia Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center; Est. 2017)
  - Supports 6 member countries.
  - In 2023 provided Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Finance with a cash forecasting and analysis tool to generate projections based on actual cash flows, enabling realistic annual cash plans, monthly updates, target cash buffers, and improved treasury management and savings.
- CDOT (Capacity Development Office in Thailand; Est. 2012)
  - Provides technical assistance and training to Cambodia, Lao P.D.R., and Vietnam.
  - Supported the Bank of Lao P.D.R. to modernize monetary policy and improve analytical tools, enhancing liquidity management and decision-making frameworks that impacted interbank market rates, deposit rates, and lending rates.
- STI (Singapore Training Institute; Est. 1998)
  - Has provided training to more than 22,000 officials from 38 Asia-Pacific countries through around 40 events per year.
  - Developed innovative blended courses on Monetary Policy Analysis and Forecasting, and Macroeconomic Policy Communications; increasingly provides technical assistance to fragile and low-income countries.
- CICDC (China-IMF Capacity Development Center; Est. 2018)
  - Provides training to officials from China and Belt and Road Initiative partner countries to improve fiscal frameworks, debt management, fiscal and monetary modeling, banking sector resilience, and inclusive growth.
- PFTAC (Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Center; Est. 1993)
  - Supports 16 Pacific Island countries and territories.
  - In Tonga supported development of a macro-fiscal scenario model post-pandemic to strengthen forecasts and fiscal framework solidity.
  - In Papua New Guinea, supported development of a local currency bond market and regulatory framework to provide sustainable fiscal funding and mitigate exchange rate risks.

### Training reach and key statistics
- The network of centers trains government officials across regions with examples including:
  - JVI: more than 50,000 public officials trained historically; FY25: 1,045 participants and 42 IMF courses.
  - ATI: trains about 1,000 officials annually in nearly 40 courses and 20 training events; network of more than 9,000 alumni.
  - STI: more than 22,000 officials trained from 38 countries; around 40 events per year.
- Contributing partners and host countries provide over 75 percent of operating resources for the centers.
- CARTAC’s Large Taxpayer Division work helped increase revenues by US$210 million, or 4 percent of GDP.
- AFRITAC West: Mauritania reduced physical inspections from 60 percent to 15 percent in 2022 and increased duties and taxes collected by over 15 percent.
- CCAMTAC: interbank repo market turnover in Uzbekistan grew from US$48.5 million in 2022 to US$21.7 billion in 2024 (up 447 times).
- AFRITAC South: Zimbabwe fiscal year 2024 customs selectivity changes raised an extra US$10.8 million; business intelligence assessments totaled US$53.4 million.
- CAPTAC-DR: as of 2024 processes approximately 1 million payments a month, 60 percent benefiting women.

### Governance, financing, and partnerships
- The centers operate under a partnership structure that pools donor, host country, development partner, and IMF resources.
- Contributing partners participate in steering committees that provide governance and guide center activities.
- Annualized average partner support figure cited for top IMF capacity development partners covers FY2021–25, including costs covered directly by host countries.

### Role in strengthening institutions and policy outcomes
- Strong institutions are critical for economic stability and growth; the IMF’s capacity development aims to strengthen macroeconomic and financial institutions and promote sound economic policies.
- Centers’ activities include improving statistical frameworks, strengthening tax and customs administration, modernizing monetary policy frameworks, building forecasting and analytical capacity, enhancing financial sector supervision, and supporting debt and fiscal risk management.
- Peer learning and long-term engagement enable countries to adapt tools and practices (for example, IMF fiscal risk tools, program-based budgeting, climate fiscal risk instruments, fintech regulatory frameworks, and local currency bond market development) to improve governance, transparency, and resilience.

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/capacity-developement/brochures/rcdc-brochure-august-2025.pdf_