## D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan (May 2021–October 2022)

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### Purpose and design of the D4D Fund
- Objective: Putting more and better data in the hands of decision-makers to enhance evidence-based macroeconomic policies and support achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Focus: Strengthen national statistical systems, promote transparency and accountability, and offer efficient solutions to capacity development (CD). (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Conceptual foundation:
  - Needs assessment considers (i) demand from countries, (ii) policy relevance, (iii) identification of data gaps and data quality concerns, (iv) complementarity with CD from IMF Regional Capacity Development Centers and bilateral CD projects, and (v) flexibility to react to a country’s capacity and readiness to accept CD. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Size, target countries and period:
  - $33.1 million for mainly low- and lower middle-income countries, from June 2018 to June 2023. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Modular structure and indicative allocations:
  - M1: Addressing Data Needs and Quality Concerns — $18-20 million
  - M2: Financial Access Survey (FAS) — $4-5 million
  - M3: Online Learning — $6.5-8.5 million
  - M4: Statistical Information Management — $0.5-1 million
  - Additional indicative module-level amounts repeated as $6-7 million, $6 million, $6-7 million in the overview. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)

### Key findings on the pandemic impact and role of D4D-funded capacity development
- Increased demand and constrained supply:
  - COVID-19 increased demand for high-quality data while making data compilation more difficult and costly, especially in low- and lower middle-income countries (LLMICs). (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - As of end-April 2021, 39 countries, mostly LLMICs, were at high risk or in debt distress. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Funding and operational pressures on national statistical offices (NSOs):
  - More than half of NSOs in LLMICs noted a decrease in their overall funding from government and other sources in 2020.
  - 87 percent of NSOs indicated that moderate to severe funding limitations were challenging their ability to operate during the pandemic. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Global aid and data/statistics:
  - Development aid with a primary focus on data and statistics accounted for only 0.42 percent of reported funding for international COVID-19-related aid as of January 2021 (pre-pandemic share around 0.39 percent). (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Role of the D4D Fund:
  - The D4D Fund finances about two thirds of the IMF’s externally financed headquarter-based statistics CD under the new work plan (May 2021 – October 2022); the IMF is one of the top five global providers of CD in all statistics sectors. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)

### Adaptations in CD delivery during the pandemic
- Delivery modalities and volume:
  - 77 of the 107 planned CD activities were conducted in FY 2021, all delivered remotely. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Cumulative CD activities delivered since the D4D Fund started reached 138. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - 30 CD activities were postponed in FY 2021; the majority are included in the new FY 2022 – FY 2023 Q2 work plan. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- STA operational adjustments:
  - Modular structure and Steering Committee flexibility facilitated agile responses.
  - STA sometimes took on a larger share in data compilation to reduce workload on local compilers.
  - Comprehensive workshops often replaced by shorter webinars; blended learning and online learning videos piloted to address connectivity and IT equipment constraints. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)

### Financial status, spending, and projections
- Commitments, contributions, and spending:
  - At June 2020 SC meeting: endorsed 18-month work plan with projected cumulative spending of $14.4 million by end-FY 2021. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Actual cumulative spending by end-FY 2021: $9.5 million. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Total commitments to date: $31.1 million (only $2 million below target five-year program budget of $33.1 million). (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Contributions received to date: $27 million; expected to reach $31.5 million by end of the new work plan period (October 2022). (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Proposed additional budget and forecast:
  - Proposed work program May 2021–October 2022 requires additional budget: $7.8 million.
  - Spending forecast: $3.0 million for October 2021–April 2022; $4.8 million for May–October 2022. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Outlook and extension considerations:
  - With travel-related expenses absent, FY 2021 spending below projections; roughly 30 percent drop in CD activity implementation in FY 2021 attributed to absence of travel-related costs.
  - Under conservative assumptions about resumption of travel, Phase 1 could probably be extended by at least a year under the current overall budget envelope; a formal extension proposal to be presented later. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)

### Operational priorities and planned activities (high level)
- Module 1: Continue emphasis on debt and fiscal statistics; phase-in work on real and external sector statistics; support high-frequency indicators and benchmarking/rebasing.
- Module 2 (FAS): Sustain and expand the Financial Access Survey, including gender-disaggregated statistics and costs of financial access; maintain FAS as monitoring basis for SDG financial inclusion indicator. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Module 3 (Online Learning): Develop and launch structured online learning curriculum covering ten fundamental statistical topical areas and deliver courses in up to six languages. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Module 4 (Statistical Information Management): Advise statistics offices, central banks, and finance ministries to streamline, standardize, and automate data management practices and infrastructure. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)

### Ad-hoc advisory services and immediate response (Module 1 facility)
- SC approved a budget of $292,065 in June 2020 to meet urgent ad-hoc requests. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Between June 2020 and April 2021:
  - Number of interventions provided: 53
  - Number of beneficiary countries: 25
  - Total expenses, May 2020–April 2021: $39,805
- Summary by work stream (interventions; expenses, May 2020–April 2021):
  - PSDS/GFS: 37 interventions; $28,088
  - ESS: 12 interventions; $7,544
  - RSS: 4 interventions; $4,173
  - TOTAL: 53 interventions; $39,805
- Beneficiary countries by region: AFR (list includes Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, …, Zimbabwe); MCD (list includes Afghanistan, Egypt, …, Uzbekistan); WHD: El Salvador. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)

### Demand and uptake for statistics capacity development
- Eligibility expansion and uptake:
  - SC temporarily granted eligibility in June 2020 to seven countries near the LLMIC income threshold; five of these expressed interest and received STA support. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Fiscal and debt statistics demand:
  - Fiscal and debt reporting sub-module accounted for 24 percent of Module 1 (increases to 37 percent if ad-hoc advisory services in FY 2021 are included). (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Webinars tailored to pandemic data compilation challenges: 9 webinars; participants reached: 363. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - By end-FY 2021, about 85 percent of eligible countries benefited from D4D-funded CD support in fiscal and debt reporting. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- High-frequency indicators and absorptive capacity:
  - Of 26 CD activities previously planned in HFIs/RPPIs/source data development, only 7 were conducted in FY 2021 (47 percent shortfall compared with June 2020 SC work plan). (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - STA developed an approach where STA experts take a larger initial role to reduce NSO workload for MIEG development. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Online learning uptake:
  - Active participants in STA online learning nearly doubled, reaching 6,000 active participants in FY21. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - GFSx launched August 2020; BOP-IIPx launched November 2020. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Course participation distribution: half of active participants from LLMICs; one out of four from AFR or APD; one out of five from an FCS. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Note on active participant metric: active if registered and has answered at least one graded question correctly; if participant’s overall average score is above 0 percent, that person is considered active. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)

### Module 1 — Real Sector Statistics (RSS) and High-Frequency Indicators (HFIs)
- Objective: Strengthen compilation and dissemination of HFIs, national accounts benchmarking/rebasing, and RPPIs to support policy analysis, risk detection, and pandemic response. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- RSS pandemic impact:
  - RSS most impacted because typically prepared by NSOs; source data collection constrained by lockdowns, remote work with limited connectivity and unreliable electricity. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Activities in HFIs, RPPIs, and national accounts rebasing fell short of the June 2020 SC work plan by 47 percent. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- STA flexible MIEG approach for HFIs:
  - STA expert develops experimental MIEG using country source data and open/Big Data, presents results to NSO and policymakers, drafts sources and methods document.
  - When pandemic pressures ease, responsibility shifts to NSO staff for sustainability; decision on public dissemination rests with authorities. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Progress (selected country examples):
  - Regional AFR workshop (March 2021): participants from Cape Verde, Lesotho, Liberia, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Zambia; TA request from São Tomé and Príncipe. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Bhutan: experimental MIEG developed; follow-up mission scheduled July 2021. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Republic of Congo: experimental quarterly indicators from VAT data developed (August 2020). (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Mongolia: experimental constant prices MIEG series January 2010–January 2021 developed; further work on agriculture, fishing, forestry, and construction source data. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Sierra Leone, Tajikistan, Togo: missions initiated MIEG work with country-specific next steps. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)

### Nowcasting initiative (Box 1) — coordination and expected benefits
- AFR launched a nowcasting initiative using machine learning and non-traditional data to provide timely high-frequency GDP estimates in many LLMICs; STA coordinates to maximize synergies with HFI CD. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- STA emphasizes importance of official national accounts as benchmarks for nowcasting and conceptual understanding of ‘monthly GDP’ for model use. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Training and demand:
  - First IMF nowcasting course (March 2021) attracted over 400 applications for 40 slots. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - STA will step up engagement with Area Departments and plan regional workshops and missions; placeholders for up to 19 missions provide scope to target at least 15 countries for HFIs/nowcasting support. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)

### Residential Property Price Indexes (RPPI)
- Importance: RPPIs critical for financial stability analysis since residential property is largest household asset and most purchases financed by mortgages. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Source data challenges: Use of flexible approaches including Big Data techniques and web-scraping of publicly available property listings. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Country progress highlights:
  - Vietnam: methodology identified March 2021; first RPPI release in FY 2022 feasible if issues addressed. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Cambodia: experimental indices for 2020 compiled; dissemination planned for 2022. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Mongolia, Eswatini, Sri Lanka, West Bank and Gaza, Kenya: various stages of development and expected publication timelines (examples include official RPPI expected by May 2022 for Eswatini; Palestine began disseminating quarterly RPPI in February 2021). (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Planned FY 2022 assistance:
  - Follow-up assistance to Bangladesh, Cambodia, Eswatini, Mongolia, Tunisia, and Vietnam; regional workshop (virtual) for MCD region on Big Data web-scraping tools planned for August/September 2021; placeholders for additional missions. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)

### External Sector Statistics (ESS) — country work and planned priorities
- Importance: ESS essential to detect external risks and feed IMF external stability analysis. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Needs assessment (May 2020): 21 country responses identified priorities including alternative data sources, use of financial statements and ITRS, recording IMF and donor transactions, and compilation of travel/remittances during the pandemic. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Regional workshops and country missions: three regional workshops delivered (participant counts: first workshop 34 officials and 6 observers from 17 countries; second 32 officials from 17 countries plus Haiti; third 39 participants and 19 observers representing 10 countries). (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Selected country findings and remediation:
  - Afghanistan: grants averaged 6.3 percent of GDP during 2016–2020; mission supported ITRS updating and reserves template compilation. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Côte d’Ivoire: discrepancy between IIP and external debt equivalent to 20 percent of GDP; guidance provided on reserves template. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Niger: annual gold exports between $41 to 46 million up to 2019 and jumped to $445 million in 2020. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Eritrea: resume BOP compilation after more than 20 years since 2000 is planned. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Work moving forward (selected priorities and country list):
  - Strengthen data sources for BOP in Afghanistan, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, and Equatorial Guinea.
  - Improve ITRS for Afghanistan, Burundi, Gambia, and Liberia.
  - Design surveys to address BOP/IIP gaps; better remittances and travel estimates for listed countries plus São Tomé and Príncipe, Tunisia, and Ukraine.
  - Improve direct investment statistics in Zambia and mobile money/digitalization as high-frequency data sources across multiple countries. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)

### Fiscal and Debt Reporting (PSDS/GFS) — achievements and planned work
- Thematic workshops and webinars:
  - Nine thematic workshops planned over the work plan period. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Three EDS workshops by region; three remittances and travel workshops by region; three other thematic workshops. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - BOP-IIPx SPOCs: three regional SPOCs planned. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Progress and outcomes:
  - PSDS diagnostic workshops: three regional workshops; 97 officials from 17 countries participated. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Webinars: four COVID-19 recording webinars reached 139 officials from 21 countries. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - SOE conversion webinars: two webinars trained 127 officials from 31 AFR countries. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Selected country outcomes and figures:
  - Mozambique: central government debt stock estimated at 82 percent of GDP; consolidating budgetary entities, municipalities, social security funds, and SOEs increased debt to around 136 percent of GDP. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Vanuatu: assistance estimated debt liabilities for ten nonfinancial public corporations around 5 percent of GDP for 2018. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Tunisia: data compiled for 22 SOEs. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Lesotho: six SOEs and parastatals compiled; five non-market SOEs used in consolidation example. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Georgia: sectorization of around 350 SOEs; example compilation for ten largest SOEs representing around 91 percent of total SOEs revenues. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Programmatic changes:
  - Net change in ESS CD activities: +40.
  - Net change in Fiscal and Debt Reporting CD activities: +30.
  - GFSx SPOC additions: GFSx SPOC (2) +2. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Planned missions and training:
  - Final PSDS diagnostic workshop for MCD countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, West Bank and Gaza, Yemen); missions rescheduled from FY 2021 to FY 2022 (Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Egypt, Sierra Leone). (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Follow-up GFS missions: Comoros, Eswatini, Haiti, Ghana, The Gambia, Tajikistan; CD to Mozambique, Zambia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Cabo Verde, Moldova; eight placeholder missions allocated for program negotiations and pandemic financing gaps. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)

### Financial Access Survey (FAS) — progress, outreach, and next steps
- Role and data type:
  - FAS collects supply-side information from supervisory institutions and central banks; uses administrative data enabling annual publication and cost-efficiency; two FAS indicators adopted to monitor SDG Target 8.10; nine FAS indicators endorsed by G20 as G20 Financial Inclusion Indicators. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Reporting and coverage metrics (preserved exactly):
  - Total reporters in 2020: 159 countries.
  - Mobile money reporting in 2020: 79 reporting countries.
  - Gender-disaggregated reporters in 2020: 62 countries (up from 49 in 2019).
  - Mobile and internet banking reporters in 2020: 86 countries (up from 68 in the preceding year).
  - FCS reporting in 2020: 22 countries, equivalent to 52 percent.
  - Financial Access COVID-19 Policy Tracker downloads as of April 2021: over 3,000.
  - Tracker coverage as of January 2021: 131 jurisdictions for SME finance; 18 jurisdictions for mobile money; 28 jurisdictions for other digital financial services. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Outreach outcomes:
  - Webinars for Latin America and Caribbean (November 2020) and Francophone Africa (January 2021) improved coverage; Ecuador began reporting after WHD webinar participation. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Planned enhancements:
  - Continue webinars for FY 2022 FAS round; convert MCD regional workshop into possibly two webinars; deploy automated validation tools and metadata review; expand Policy Tracker to include measures supporting women’s financial access; explore non-traditional data sources (mobile money, geolocation visualization, fintech questionnaires, working paper on mobile money). (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)

### Extension of temporary eligibility, operational guidance, and governance
- Temporary eligibility extension:
  - IMF proposes to extend temporary expansion of D4D eligibility for countries hit hard by the crisis and close to the LLMIC income threshold; reassessment once World Bank publishes new LLMIC list in July 2021; STA to present proposal for an extended eligible-country list for SC endorsement in the quarterly report in October 2021. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Operational guidelines and CDMAP integration:
  - Operational guidelines revised to align with CDMAP processes; proposed revisions presented for SC endorsement (Annex 2). (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Issues for SC endorsement (selected budget implications, preserved exactly):
  - Module 1, Sub Module Real Sector Statistics: $3.72 million
  - Module 1, Sub Module External Sector Statistics: $3.61 million
  - Module 1, Sub Module Fiscal and Debt Reporting: $4.39 million
  - Module 1, Ad-hoc Advisory Services: $0.25 million
  - Module 2: Financial Access Survey: $2.45 million
  - Module 3: Online Learning: $7.13 million
  - Module 4: Statistical Information Management: $0.33 million
  - Program Manager: $1.16 million
  - Lapse-of-Time Approval of Changes to Work Plan — Section V; Country Eligibility Criteria — Section V; Update of Operational Guidelines — Section V & Annex 2. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
- Governance (Annex II — Draft Operational Guidance Note):
  - Steering Committee (SC) composes of Contributor representatives and IMF; SC chaired by a Contributor elected by consensus with one-year term; SC decisions made by consensus with a 15-day lapse-of-time decision-making period for e-mail circulation unless adjusted. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Work plan changes requiring SC endorsement include changes to objectives within a Module/Sub-module and budget changes more than 25 percent measured against the last endorsed proposal. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Reporting: annual report to SC; Technical Assistance Reports provided on Partners Connect platform accessible to Contributors. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)
  - Evaluation: external, independent mid-term evaluation launched October 2020 expected completed by May 2022; inception note by October 2021; Evaluation Sub-Committee includes Japan, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, and IMF AFR, APD, FAD, ICD and STA representatives. (D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF)

*D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan (May 2021–October 2022), Statistics Department, IMF.*

### EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ___________________________________________________________________________________ 8

### d4d-fund-annual-report-and-work-plan-may-2021-october-2022 - EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

### Purpose and design of the D4D Fund
- Objective: Putting more and better data in the hands of decision-makers to enhance evidence-based macroeconomic policies and support achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
- Focus: Strengthen national statistical systems to cope with a more challenging national and international policy environment, promote transparency and accountability, and offer efficient solutions to capacity development (CD).
- Conceptual foundation: Needs assessment considering (i) demand from countries, (ii) policy relevance, (iii) identification of data gaps and data quality concerns, (iv) complementarity with CD from IMF Regional Capacity Development Centers and bilateral CD projects, and (v) flexibility to react to a country’s capacity and readiness to accept CD.
- Size, target countries and period: $33.1 million for mainly low- and lower middle-income countries, from June 2018 to June 2023.
- Modular structure and allocations:
  - M1: Addressing Data Needs and Quality Concerns — $18-20 million
  - M2: Financial Access Survey (FAS) — $4-5 million
  - M3: Online Learning — $6.5-8.5 million
  - M4: Statistical Information Management — $0.5-1 million
  - (Additional indicative module-level amounts repeated as $6-7 million, $6 million, $6-7 million in the overview)

### Key findings on pandemic impact and the role of D4D-funded CD
- The COVID-19 pandemic increased demand for high-quality data to guide policies while making data compilation more difficult and costly, especially in low- and lower middle-income countries (LLMICs).
- As of end-April 2021, 39 countries, mostly LLMICs, were at high risk or in debt distress.
- Supply-side funding pressures and operational constraints:
  - More than half of NSOs in LLMICs noted a decrease in their overall funding from government and other sources in 2020.
  - 87 percent of NSOs indicated that moderate to severe funding limitations were challenging their ability to operate during the pandemic.
- Despite rising need, development aid with a primary focus on data and statistics accounted for only 0.42 percent of reported funding for international COVID-19-related aid as of January 2021, barely above the pre-pandemic share (around 0.39 percent).
- The D4D Fund finances about two thirds of the IMF’s externally financed headquarter-based statistics CD under the new work plan (May 2021 – October 2022); the IMF is one of the top five global providers of CD in all statistics sectors.

### Adaptations in CD delivery during the pandemic
- STA adjusted CD delivery flexibly and rapidly:
  - The D4D Fund’s modular structure and enhanced flexibility from the Steering Committee facilitated agile responses.
  - STA sometimes took on a larger share in data compilation to reduce the workload on local compilers where authorities faced significant constraints.
  - Traditional comprehensive face-to-face workshops were often replaced by shorter webinars focused on specific problems.
  - Blended learning options were piloted to address connectivity and IT equipment constraints; online learning videos enriched remote training.
- Activity volumes and modality:
  - 77 of the 107 planned CD activities were conducted in FY 2021, all delivered remotely.
  - Cumulative CD activities delivered since the D4D Fund started reached 138.
  - 30 CD activities were postponed in FY 2021; the majority are included in the new FY 2022 – FY 2023 Q2 work plan.
- Regional and thematic focus retained:
  - Debt and fiscal statistics remain a prominent component of Module 1, with the new work plan phasing in real and external sector statistics to feed debt sustainability analysis.
  - CD in fragile and conflict-affected states remains a priority, though remote delivery has been challenging.
  - Regional allocation of CD is concentrated in the Africa and Asia/Pacific regions.
  - The Financial Access Survey gained importance given pandemic-related inequality concerns, providing gender-disaggregated data for SDG monitoring.

### Financial status and planning
- The financial situation of the D4D Fund remains sound, supported by continued donor commitment.
- With travel-related expenses absent, spending in FY 2021 was below projections.
- Under the new work plan and conservative assumptions about resumption of travel, an extension of Phase 1 of the initiative by at least one year may be possible under the current overall budget envelope; a formal proposal for an extension would be presented later due to pandemic-related uncertainties.
- STA seeks donors’ endorsement of the new work plan and associated budget, and requests continuation of the additional flexibility provided in June 2020 to maintain agile CD delivery.

### Operational priorities and planned activities (high level)
- Module 1: Continue emphasis on debt and fiscal statistics, and phase-in work on real and external sector statistics; support high-frequency indicators and benchmarking/rebasing work where needed.
- Module 2 (FAS): Sustain and expand the Financial Access Survey, including gender-disaggregated statistics and costs of financial access; maintain the FAS as the monitoring basis for the SDG financial inclusion indicator.
- Module 3 (Online Learning): Develop and launch structured online learning curriculum covering ten fundamental statistical topical areas and deliver courses in up to six languages.
- Module 4 (Statistical Information Management): Provide advice to statistics offices, central banks, and finance ministries to streamline, standardize, and automate data management practices and infrastructure to enhance compilation and dissemination of macroeconomic and financial statistics.

*D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan (May 2021 – October 2022), Executive Summary.*

### 7.      While implementation of CD with more strategic, medium-term objectives slowed down,

### 7.      While implementation of CD with more strategic, medium-term objectives slowed down, 

### Ad-hoc advisory services and immediate response
- The D4D Fund’s SC approved a budget of $292,065 in June 2020 to meet urgent ad-hoc requests.
- Between June 2020 and April 2021:
  - Number of interventions provided: 53
  - Number of beneficiary countries: 25
  - Total expenses, May 2020–April 2021: $39,805
- Summary of Module 1, Ad-hoc Advisory Services Facility use (Work stream / Number of interventions / Expenses, May 2020–April 2021 (in $)):
  - PSDS/GFS: 37 interventions; $28,088
  - ESS: 12 interventions; $7,544
  - RSS: 4 interventions; $4,173
  - TOTAL: 53 interventions; $39,805
- Beneficiary countries (by region):
  - AFR: Central African Republic, Côte d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Mali, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Togo, Zambia, Zimbabwe
  - MCD: Afghanistan, Egypt, Kyrgyz Republic, Morocco, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan
  - WHD: El Salvador

### Demand and uptake for statistics capacity development
- SC temporarily granted eligibility in June 2020 to seven countries near the LLMIC income threshold; five of these expressed interest and received STA support across several areas of statistics.
- Demand for CD on debt and fiscal statistics:
  - Fiscal and debt reporting sub-module accounted for 24 percent of Module 1 (this share increases to 37 percent if provision of ad-hoc advisory services in FY 2021 is included).
  - Webinars tailored to pandemic data compilation challenges: 9 webinars; participants reached: 363.
  - By end-FY 2021, about 85 percent of eligible countries benefited from D4D-funded CD support in fiscal and debt reporting.
- High-frequency official statistics:
  - CD delivery impacted by limited absorptive capacity, especially in NSOs; out of 26 CD activities planned previously, only 7 were conducted in FY 2021 (work plan implementation weak; 47 percent shortfall in areas of HFIs, RPPIs, and source data development compared with June 2020 SC work plan).
  - STA developed an innovative approach to temporarily ease NSO compilers’ workload for the new work plan (detailed in Section IV).
- Online learning demand and courses:
  - Active participants in STA online learning nearly doubled, reaching 6,000 active participants in FY21.
  - GFSx launched August 2020; BOP-IIPx launched November 2020.
  - Course participation distribution: half of active participants from LLMICs; one out of four from AFR or APD; one out of five from an FCS.
  - STA’s online curriculum will ultimately include ten courses.
  - Note on active participant metric: Figures include those registered who have answered at least one graded question correctly; if a participant’s overall average score is above 0 percent, that person is considered active.
- Financial Access Survey (FAS) and COVID-19 tracking:
  - FAS response rate kept close to pre-pandemic level; reporting on gender-disaggregated data and digital financial services deepened.
  - Financial Access COVID-19 Policy Tracker established June 2020; received over 3,000 hits.

### Regional focus and fragility contexts
- AFR remained the main beneficiary region, followed by APD and MCD.
- Regional distribution of CD activities (FY19–21): AFR 46%, APD 23%, MCD 22%, WHD 5%, EUR 4%.
- Of the 87 D4D Fund eligible countries in FY 2021, 33 were FCS; 79 percent of these FCS received CD in this work plan cycle despite limited IT resources and connectivity problems.

### Financial status and projections for the Fund
- At its June 2020 meeting, the SC endorsed an 18-month work plan and approved a cumulative projected spending of $14.4 million by end-FY 2021.
- Actual cumulative spending by end-FY 2021: $9.5 million.
  - Principal reason for underspend: absence of travel-related costs; roughly 30 percent drop in CD activity implementation in FY 2021.
  - Acceleration of online course development and translations during the pandemic.
- Total commitments to date: $31.1 million (only $2 million below the target five-year program budget of $33.1 million).
- Contributions received to date: $27 million; expected to reach $31.5 million by end of the new work plan period (October 2022), based on signed commitments and disbursement schedules.
- Proposed work program May 2021–October 2022 requires additional budget: $7.8 million.
  - Spending forecast: $3.0 million for October 2021–April 2022; $4.8 million for May–October 2022.
- Projections caveats: subject to uncertainty related to the evolution of the pandemic, impact on travel, and constraints on country authorities.
- Outlook: Based on resource utilization to date and the proposed work plan, Phase I of the D4D Fund could probably be extended by at least a year; a comprehensive analysis of future funding needs and modalities will be conducted once CD delivery uncertainties ease and is tentatively scheduled before the January 2022 SC check-in meeting.

### Work plan assumptions and delivery modality
- IMF assumption for FY 2022: around 75 percent of CD delivery will be remote.
- Likelihood of in-person delivery:
  - Higher for in-country CD.
  - Lower for training workshops that require participants from different countries.
- Work plan includes placeholders to be specified over time with regular reporting to SC members.
- Close cooperation with IMF Area Departments (ADs) emphasized to prioritize scarce statistics CD resources to the most urgent data gaps.

### Module I — Addressing Data Needs and Quality Concerns (Real, External, and Fiscal sector statistics)
- Objective: Improve data compilation and dissemination in real, external, and fiscal sector statistics to support evidence-based policy analysis, early detection and monitoring of economic risk and vulnerabilities, and pandemic response and recovery planning.
- To prioritize work given absorptive capacity constraints, close cooperation with IMF ADs is essential.

Submodule: Real Sector Statistics (RSS)
- Real sector statistics are most impacted by the pandemic because they are typically prepared by NSOs; source data collection constrained by lockdowns, remote work with limited connectivity and unreliable electricity.
- Activities in high-frequency indicators (HFIs), residential property price indexes (RPPIs), and source data development for national accounts rebasing fell short of the June 2020 SC work plan by 47 percent.

Work stream: High-Frequency Indicators (HFIs)
- STA adopted a new, flexible CD delivery approach where STA experts initially take on far more responsibility to reduce NSO workload:
  - The STA expert develops the experimental MIEG using source data inputs provided by the country and other available open or Big Data;
  - Presents results to NSO, relevant policymakers, and the IMF country team;
  - Drafts a sources and methods document for the experimental estimates.
  - Once pandemic pressures ease, lead responsibility for compiling the MIEG will shift to NSO staff to achieve sustainable CD outcomes.
  - Decision on public dissemination is with the authorities; experimental estimates can inform fiscal and monetary policy and Fund surveillance and program negotiations.

Progress achieved (regional training and TA missions)
- Regional workshop for AFR (March 2021) combined hands-on training with CD needs assessment; participants: Cape Verde, Lesotho, Liberia, Mozambique, São Tomé and Príncipe, Sierra Leone, Zambia; resulted in TA request from São Tomé and Príncipe.
- Bhutan: CD delivery started September 2020; STA developed an experimental MIEG and recommended source data improvements, selection, benchmarking, and aggregation of component series; follow-up mission scheduled for July 2021; experimental MIEG expected to be progressively used by policymakers, including the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan, and as a base for compiling QNA.
- Republic of Congo (August 2020 mission): assisted in developing quarterly indicators using VAT data; developed a simplified compilation template to use VAT data to increase coverage and accuracy of high-frequency data underlying QNA estimates; further development requires compilers’ increased familiarity with VAT database to identify missing data, outliers, and build longer time series.
- Mongolia (follow-up mission March 2021): developed an experimental constant prices MIEG series covering January 2010 to January 2021; further work to refine MIEG focuses on agriculture, fishing, forestry, and construction source data.
- Sierra Leone (first mission started January 2021 and ongoing): took stock of availability and quality of HFIs to assess fitness for MIEG development and for central bank nowcasting model; provided training on statistical techniques; nowcasting project may enhance cooperation among Bank of Sierra Leone, Ministry of Finance, and Statistics Sierra Leone.
- Tajikistan (January 2021 mission): monthly real GDP estimates rely on incomplete source data and require significant adjustments; consistency between GDP-P and GDP-E needs follow-up TA; quarterly GDP-E strengthening and national accounts issues are high priority to be delivered through the IMF’s new RCDC for Caucasus, Central Asia, and Mongolia in FY 2022; further MIEG development contingent on addressing basic national accounts compilation issues.
- Togo (February 2021 mission): initiated compilation of an experimental MIEG; advanced integration of existing HFIs into a comprehensive MIEG framework and determined scope by availability of HFIs and user needs; scope to be extended to cover GDP by expenditure in future missions; timely MIEG compilation requires addressing delays in compilation and dissemination of monthly HFIs.

*Source: D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan (May 2021–October 2022), Statistics Department, IMF.*

### Box 1. Nowcasting – An Innovative Addition to Official Statistical Methods

### Box 1. Nowcasting – An Innovative Addition to Official Statistical Methods

### Nowcasting initiative and coordination
- The IMF’s African Department (AFR) launched a nowcasting initiative to provide timely and high-frequency estimates of GDP using machine learning techniques and non-traditional data sources, including Big Data, to support economic surveillance in many LLMICs where GDP publication is delayed, quarterly data are lacking, and data revisions are substantial.
- The Statistics Department (STA) coordinates with AFR to maximize synergies between the nowcasting initiative and CD on High-Frequency Indicators (HFIs).
- STA contributions include guidance on the use of non-traditional data sources that also feed HFIs, and use of official national accounts data—preferably a quarterly GDP series—as benchmarks to identify priority indicators for nowcasting.
- STA emphasizes that a solid understanding of concepts in compiling a ‘monthly GDP’ is important for proper use in nowcasting models.

### Early delivery and capacity building
- The first IMF nowcasting course, offered by ICD in coordination with STA and the African Training Center in March 2021, attracted over 400 applications for the 40 training slots.
- STA is working with the central bank of Sierra Leone to prepare traditional and non-traditional data sources that serve the dual purpose of developing a MIEG and feeding into the nowcasting model.

### Potential medium-term benefits
- The initiative provides urgently needed timely data to decision makers and has strong potential to address source data challenges for official national accounts and price statistics over the medium-term.
- By bringing together central banks, ministries, and NSOs, the initiative can better integrate data collection from administrative and non-traditional sources that were previously limited by institutional barriers.

### Work moving forward on HFIs and nowcasting-related CD
- Demand for CD to support identification and development of HFIs in LLMICs is expected to grow.
- More compilation tasks will be shifted from national compilers to IMF staff or short-term experts, with 1-2 follow-up missions built into the work program to address heightened engagement.
- STA will step up engagement with Area Departments (ADs), especially AFR’s nowcasting initiative, to garner support for country buy-in.
- A planned regional workshop targeted at Francophone African countries (planned for December 2021) is expected to generate additional demand.
- A training workshop for APD countries will be conducted in July 2021 in collaboration with the South Asia RCDC, combining hands-on training with an assessment of possible CD needs; Bangladesh has already expressed interest in TA.
- Proposed follow-up and new TA missions include:
  - Follow-up CD missions to Bhutan, Mongolia, Uganda, and Togo.
  - From the AFR workshop, São Tomé and Príncipe expressed interest in developing a MIEG.
  - A mission to Kenya to develop a MIEG was planned but not delivered due to the pandemic’s impact on absorptive capacity.
  - A placeholder for 19 missions is included to provide flexibility to add countries (including Pacific Islands and Francophone Africa) and follow-up missions; these placeholders provide scope for meeting HFI needs in at least six countries, which would result in this workstream targeting a total of 15 countries.
  - Bangladesh and Sudan requested support to develop an industrial production index (IPI), with strong preference for onsite missions.
  - Jordan—recipient of TA to develop its MIEG—prioritizes improving core quarterly and annual national accounts and its IPI due to recent loss of experienced staff; IPI TA will be covered under the D4D Fund’s CD program.

*Source: D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan (May 2021–October 2022), Box 1. Nowcasting – An Innovative Addition to Official Statistical Methods.*

### 30.      Data on residential property prices are critical for financial stability analysis, given that this

### D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan — Residential Property Price Indexes (RPPI) and External Sector Statistics (ESS)

### Residential Property Price Indexes (RPPI)

- Importance
  - Residential property represents the household sector’s largest asset and most purchases are financed by mortgages; RPPIs are critical for financial stability analysis and assessing economic risks and vulnerabilities from residential property price fluctuations.
  - Source data is the most prominent challenge in RPPI compilation; CD uses flexible approaches including “Big Data” techniques and web-scraping of publicly available property listings to generate source data.

- Progress Achieved (country-specific)
  - Vietnam
    - Since 2018, Article IV identified need for more reliable residential property price data.
    - Two missions in 2018 and 2019 improved selection of data and enhanced quality and volume of web-scraped listing data.
    - March 2021 mission identified appropriate RPPI compilation methodology; further work required on text mining and filtering.
    - A first RPPI release in FY 2022 is feasible if outstanding issues are addressed.
  - Cambodia
    - Progress on RPPI development to address credit-risk data gap highlighted in 2018 and 2019 Article IV Reports.
    - Authorities started data collection using a new template; March 2021 mission compiled experimental indices for 2020.
    - Authorities to continue experimental RPPI for 2021 with dissemination planned for 2022.
  - Mongolia
    - Published RPPIs were based on survey data with a sub-optimal methodological framework.
    - April 2021 (third D4D-funded) mission developed an alternative methodology, automated online listings, and used web-scraping techniques.
    - Authorities aim to transition to the new methodology in 2022 to improve reliability and test new data sources.
  - Eswatini
    - Second mission (April 2021) identified additional data sources, supported data cleaning and analysis, advised on sophisticated quality adjustments and updated weights.
    - Official RPPI expected by May 2022.
  - Sri Lanka
    - CD to Sri Lanka improved RPPI quality and aided detection of construction sector credit risks.
    - April 2021 assistance strengthened methodology for Existing Condominium Price Index; compilers applied lessons to New Condominiums Index and Land Price Index.
    - Three series approved for internal use; decision on external publication pending.
  - West Bank and Gaza (Palestine)
    - Absence of administrative property-transfer data led to experimental (unpublished) RPPIs.
    - June 2020 mission advised new methodological design and model testing.
    - Palestine Monetary Authority began disseminating a new quarterly RPPI in February 2021.
  - Kenya
    - Pilot data collection from two sources and experimental indices developed; further improvements needed from representative realtors and developers.
    - Training on methodology and R programming enhanced compilers’ understanding of R scripts from STA’s RPPI Practical Compilation Guide.
    - Delivery constrained by internet connectivity and equipment availability.

- Work Moving Forward / Planned CD (FY 2022)
  - Follow-up assistance to Bangladesh, Cambodia, Eswatini, Mongolia, Tunisia, and Vietnam to finalize new RPPIs and prepare for publication; Bangladesh and Tunisia prefer onsite missions (timing unclear).
  - Armenia: initial stage of RPPI development; land register not yet collecting appropriate data.
  - Moldova: current RPPI covers capital city with web-scraped data; CD to expand geographic coverage and explore land register administrative data.
  - Uganda: mission planned to enhance published RPPI as follow-up to regional workshop attended in March 2019.
  - Regional workshop for MCD region to be conducted virtually in August/September 2021 covering Big Data web-scraping tools; will target selected countries outside MCD region.
  - Placeholder for three additional missions included in work program.
  - Table of CD activities summarized notable changes: Net change +10 missions across multiple countries and a multi-country off-site TA on web-scraping (Country TBD (3)).

### External Sector Statistics (ESS)

- Importance
  - ESS are essential to detect and respond to external risks and vulnerabilities and feed into IMF external stability analysis that guides monetary, fiscal, and exchange rate policies.
  - Major swings in trade and capital flows due to the pandemic challenged ESS as established data sources were not suited to reflect drastic swings.

- Needs Assessment (May 2020 short questionnaire to LLMICs)
  - 21 country responses (35 percent response rate); priority topics identified:
    - Addressing source data challenges (estimation for nonresponse, alternative data sources, administrative data sources, maintaining ESS with limited source data).
    - Use of financial statements and ITRS to compile BOP and/or IIP.
    - Recording IMF and donor transactions (borrowing, exceptional financing, debt relief) in the BOP.
    - Compilation of travel, other services, and remittances during the pandemic.
  - A follow-up survey is under way to fine-tune D4D Fund priorities.

- Progress Achieved (country-specific)
  - Regional workshops (three) for African and Middle East and Central Asian countries combined lectures and hands-on breakout sessions on alternative data sources and recording COVID-19 related policy actions in ESS; emphasized maintaining contacts with data providers, identifying alternative sources, and adjusting models for travel/remittances.
    - First workshop (August 31–September 2, 2020): 34 officials and 6 observers from 17 countries.
    - Second workshop (September 28–October 1, 2020): 32 officials from 17 countries plus Haiti.
    - Third workshop (October 12–14, 2020): 39 participants and 19 observers representing 10 countries.
  - Afghanistan
    - BOP and IIP have considerable gaps; December 2020 mission focused on source data and reclassification of government grants between current and capital accounts (grants averaged 6.3 percent of GDP during 2016–2020).
    - Supported updating ITRS and compiling International Reserves and Foreign Currency Liquidity template.
  - Cameroon
    - December 2020 mission addressed source data issues, processing trade data in BEAC-acquired computer application, and expanded BOP/IIP survey respondents; administration of informal trade survey halted by COVID-19.
  - Côte d’Ivoire
    - April 2021 mission focused on consistency between IIP and external debt data; discrepancy equivalent to 20 percent of GDP.
    - Provided guidance on compiling a “reserves template” data set to manage foreign reserve liquidity.
  - Djibouti
    - Central bank purchased a computer application to process source data for ESS; December 2020 mission addressed methodological issues, with main shortcoming in trade statistics and reconciliation with mirror data from Ethiopia.
  - El Salvador
    - April 2021 mission provided guidance on using ITRS to compile a separate framework for estimating digital trade to improve trade in goods and services measurement.
  - Equatorial Guinea
    - Continued CD (after prior bilateral donor project) to assist in compiling BOP and IIP and improving timeliness and dissemination; BOP still compiled annually with aggregate components up to 2015.
  - Gabon
    - February 2021 mission addressed accumulated delays; inconsistencies due to BEAC IT application issues and limited enterprise survey coverage.
    - Proposed alternative data sources to prepare provisional BOP and IIP; series (BOP 2015–19 and IIP 2015–16) to be gradually released by end-2021.
  - Guinea
    - March 2021 mission addressed consistency of imports of goods with IMF African Department data and a five-fold increase in gold exports compared to 2019; lack of information on use of proceeds of gold exports remains.
  - Madagascar
    - February 2021 mission improved IIP quality and addressed inconsistencies between BOP financial account and IIP; reviewed and improved 2019 external sector survey integration.
  - Niger
    - December 2020 mission assisted on compilation of trade in gold transactions; annual gold exports were between $41 to 46 million up to 2019 and jumped to $445 million in 2020 due to a new actor after 2017 legislation.
    - Recommended a new survey on artisanal gold activities for 2021.
  - South Sudan
    - November 2020 TA focused on cross-border transactions: oil exports, payments to Sudan, humanitarian aid, and imports; major challenge is lack of cooperation among ministries and agencies.
  - Uzbekistan
    - March 2021 multi-sector diagnostic mission noted progress aligning ESS with international standards and improving external debt statistics; disseminated quarterly EDS and reported to World Bank Quarterly EDS database.
    - Remaining issue: Reserves Data Template incomplete due to missing Ministry of Finance source data; subscription to the IMF’s Special Data Dissemination Standard is a government priority.
  - Additional country work included support to Eritrea (resume BOP compilation after >20 years), Zambia (direct investment statistics), Philippines (strengthen data sources and techniques for cross-border transactions including digitalization), and multiple countries for use of mobile money and digitalization as high-frequency data sources.

- Work Moving Forward / Planned CD
  - Focus on CD demands from countries with pandemic-related ESS compilation challenges and strengthen CD to FCS in line with IMF priorities.
  - Strengthening data sources and identifying new ones for BOP statistics in: Afghanistan, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Sudan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, and Equatorial Guinea.
  - Improve ITRS data collection framework for Afghanistan, Burundi, Gambia, and Liberia.
  - Design and implement specific surveys to address BOP and IIP source data gaps for other listed countries.
  - Achieve better BOP–IIP consistency in Cameroon and Niger.
  - Estimate currency in circulation for West Bank and Gaza to enhance consistency between BOP, IIP, and national accounts.
  - Enhance IIP–MFS consistency for Democratic Republic of Congo and Morocco.
  - Improve techniques for higher-frequency BOP and IIP statistics (including Egypt and Zimbabwe).
  - Improve remittances coverage and travel estimates for listed countries plus São Tomé and Príncipe, Tunisia, and Ukraine.
  - Resume BOP compilation in Eritrea after more than 20 years since 2000.
  - Improve compilation of direct investment statistics in Zambia.
  - Mission to Philippines to strengthen coverage of cross-border transactions from digitalization.
  - Follow-up CD on cross-border digitalization and mobile money as source data for ESS in Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Chad, El Salvador, Kenya, Madagascar, Niger, Rwanda, and Zambia.
  - Selection of countries for five placeholder missions will be based on new survey results.

*D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, May 2021–October 2022 — Statistics Department, IMF.*

### 37.      Nine thematic workshops are planned over the work plan period, centered on topics that

### D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan (May 2021–October 2022) — External Sector Statistics; Fiscal and Debt Reporting (extract)

### Planned thematic workshops and training
- Nine thematic workshops are planned over the work plan period, centered on topics countries identified as priorities in the surveys.
- Workshops by topic and region:
  - Three workshops for Anglophone Africa, Francophone Africa, and the Middle East and Central Asia region will focus on EDS.
  - Three workshops for Anglophone Africa, Francophone Africa, and the Middle East and Central Asia region will focus on remittances and travel.
  - Three thematic workshops are planned based on identified needs of countries in the ongoing survey.
- BOP-IIPx online course follow-up:
  - To complement traditional training activities, three BOP-IIPx SPOCs will be delivered regionally to address specific regional compilation challenges and facilitate peer learning.
  - BOP-IIPx SPOC offerings listed: BOP-IIPx SPOC for MCD (English) +1; BOP-IIPx SPOC for Phase I Countries (English) +1; BOP-IIPx SPOC for Francophone AFR Countries (French) +1.

### Progress achieved — PSDS, GFS, and SOEs work
- PSDS diagnostic workshops:
  - Three regional PSDS diagnostic workshops identified data gaps and developed preliminary work plans.
  - Ninety-seven officials from 17 countries participated in the APD, WHD, and AFR workshops.
  - Internet connectivity issues produced spotty attendance for eight countries, notably some Pacific Island countries.
  - Prominent data gaps identified: institutional coverage of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and arrears.
  - Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras expressed interest in TA missions in FY 2022.
- Webinars addressing pandemic-related needs:
  - Four webinars on recording of COVID-19-related interventions in fiscal and debt statistics delivered in Arabic, English, Portuguese, and Russian attracted 139 officials from 21 countries.
  - The webinars covered three guidance notes: (i) How to Record Government Policy Interventions in Fiscal Statistics, (ii) How to Record Debt Relief under the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust in Macroeconomic Statistics, and (iii) How to Record Debt Reorganization in External Sector and Government Finance Statistics—Debt Service Suspension Initiative.
  - Two webinars trained participants on STA’s tool to convert financial statements of SOEs into fiscal statistics; 127 officials from 31 English and French speaking AFR countries participated, with almost half from FCS.
- PSDS TA missions and outcomes:
  - Mozambique: mission supported compilation of preliminary consolidated debt statistics for 2018 that included debt of budgetary entities, municipalities, social security funds, and SOEs; consolidating these entities with the central government debt stock (estimated at 82 percent of GDP) increased the debt amounted to around 136 percent of GDP.
  - Madagascar: mission assisted in improving procedures for compiling statistics for each general government subsector and consolidating them; first set of preliminary general government data expected in 2021 and steps to initiate compilation of a financial balance sheet.
  - Vanuatu: joint mission addressed weaknesses in budgetary central government GFS compilation; assistance to determine debt liabilities for ten nonfinancial public corporations resulted in debt estimates of around 5 percent of GDP for 2018.
  - Zimbabwe: CD widened instrument coverage beyond debt securities and loans by incorporating special drawing rights, currency and deposits, and arrears; updated a ‘from whom-to-whom’ debt matrix exercise.
  - Benin: joint mission supported preparation of financial balance sheet and debt statements and reviewed pilot versions for FY 2020; identified remaining data gaps on financial instruments and reviewed efforts towards GFSM 2014 implementation.
  - Tajikistan: mission resulted in quarterly debt data dissemination to the IMF-World Bank quarterly PSDS database for the first time.
- SOE fiscal statistics and sectorization:
  - Tunisia: data compiled for 22 SOEs.
  - Lesotho: data compiled for six SOEs and parastatals; using available data from budgetary central government, local governments, and five non-market SOEs, the mission illustrated consolidation to obtain consolidated general government GFS.
  - Georgia: sectorization of around 350 SOEs completed, making Georgia the first country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe capable to perform sectorization of all public sector entities; mission illustrated compilation of GFS for ten of the largest SOEs representing around 91 percent of total SOEs revenues.
- GFS technical assistance outcomes:
  - Haiti: CD focused on building a coherent GFS compilation tool to centralize data sources, allow reconciliation and consistency checks, and build a historical dataset of a statement of operations and a cashflow statement.
  - Comoros: supported development of an Excel-based template to compile a GFS statement of operations consistent with the GFSM 2014 to ease transition to GFSM 2014 presentation.
  - Eswatini: reviewed compilation of expenditures by COFOG and supported data compilation for budgetary and extrabudgetary entities.
  - Kyrgyz Republic: assistance on recording government financial support to energy sector SOEs and classification of expense categories in budget execution reports in line with the GFSM 2014; reviewed possibility to initiate monthly GFS compilation and reporting for the general government sector.
  - Guinea: combined D4D Fund and RCDC resources to accelerate GFSM 2014 development.
  - Ghana: mission analyzed financial data for selected entities and supported sectorization distinguishing publicly controlled entities from private entities and not-for-profit institutions; a two-day workshop enabled participants to complete sectorization.
  - Morocco: reviewed procedures for compiling GFS for general government subsectors and consolidating them; discussed outstanding issues regarding general government debt data recently reported to the IMF.
- Aggregate programmatic changes and indicators:
  - Net change in ESS CD activities: +40.
  - Net change in Fiscal and Debt Reporting CD activities: +30.
  - GFSx SPOC additions: GFSx SPOC (2) +2.

### Work moving forward — priorities and planned missions
- PSDS next steps:
  - Conduct final PSDS diagnostic workshop for MCD countries that could not participate in July 2019 (Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, West Bank and Gaza, and Yemen); workshop tailored to challenges of this country group (all FCS except Pakistan) and coordinated via RCDC experts with likely remote delivery.
  - The previously planned second APD diagnostic workshop has been permanently removed from the work plan due to sufficient baseline information from past engagements.
  - Missions rescheduled from FY 2021 to FY 2022 and beyond: Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, Egypt, Sierra Leone; CD to Uzbekistan pushed to FY 2022.
  - Missions in FY 2022 to build on diagnostics for Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Vanuatu, Central African Republic, Guinea Bissau, São Tomé e Príncipe, Mozambique, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Honduras.
  - Sierra Leone mission in FY 2022 to assist with recording of arrears securitization affecting IMF program monitoring.
  - Ukraine mission to support valuation of debt liabilities, calculation of government debt, and widening debt data coverage including non-market SOEs.
  - Morocco and Angola requested missions to broaden institutional/instrument coverage and assist with debt stocks and flows consistency issues respectively.
  - Follow-up CD to Côte d’Ivoire, Lesotho, and Tunisia on SOE fiscal statistics compilation to support consolidation and expand coverage.
  - Seven placeholder missions provide flexibility for countries requesting assistance after PSDS diagnostics; three placeholders allocated for SOEs missions.
- GFS forward program:
  - Follow-up missions to Comoros, Eswatini, Haiti, Ghana, The Gambia, and Tajikistan to improve GFS compilation and address issues relevant for macroeconomic management and IMF surveillance/program monitoring.
  - CD to Mozambique to improve data consistency and further align GFS with international standards.
  - CD to Zambia to expand institutional coverage to include macro-relevant general government entities not currently covered.
  - CD to Afghanistan and Yemen to provide support despite historically low TA demand; Cabo Verde and Moldova requested reviews and recommendations to further improve already compiled GFS.
  - Eight placeholder missions allocated to accommodate demand related to IMF program negotiations and pandemic financing gaps.
- Training expansion:
  - First offerings of GFSx in French and in Spanish to a closed group will be augmented with live interactive sessions by GFS experts to enable Q&A and peer exchange; interactions could lead to follow-up ad-hoc or formal TA missions.

### Key numeric figures and counts (preserved exactly as in source)
- Nine thematic workshops planned.
- Three workshops for EDS by region: Anglophone Africa, Francophone Africa, and Middle East and Central Asia.
- Three workshops on remittances and travel by region.
- Three BOP-IIPx SPOCs planned.
- PSDS diagnostic workshops: three regional workshops; 97 officials from 17 countries.
- Webinars:
  - Four COVID-19 recording webinars; 139 officials from 21 countries.
  - Two SOE financial-statement conversion webinars; 127 officials from 31 AFR countries.
- Mozambique: central government debt stock estimated at 82 percent of GDP; consolidated debt around 136 percent of GDP.
- Vanuatu: debt estimates for ten nonfinancial public corporations around 5 percent of GDP for 2018.
- Tunisia: data for 22 SOEs compiled.
- Lesotho: six SOEs and parastatals compiled; five non-market SOEs used in consolidation example.
- Georgia: sectorization of around 350 SOEs; compilation example for ten largest SOEs representing around 91 percent of total SOEs revenues.
- Aggregate changes in CD activities:
  - ESS net change +40.
  - Fiscal and Debt Reporting net change +30.
  - GFSx SPOC (2) +2.

*D4D Fund annual report and work plan (May 2021–October 2022), Statistics Department (extract).*

### 49.      The FAS database collects supply-side information helpful to policy makers seeking to

### Financial Access Survey (FAS)

### Overview
- The FAS database collects supply-side information from supervisory institutions and central banks to inform policy makers seeking to address inequality.
- Compared to surveys that collect demand-side data, the FAS uses administrative data, which makes data collection cost-efficient and allows for annual publication.
- Two FAS indicators were adopted by the international community to monitor Target 8.10 of the 2030 Agenda SDGs, and nine FAS indicators were endorsed by the G20 as G20 Financial Inclusion Indicators.

### Progress Achieved
- The FAS 2020 exercise produced important improvements in gender-disaggregated data reporting and digital financial services coverage, though there was a slight drop in the number of reporting jurisdictions due to the pandemic.
- Reporting improvements were facilitated by outreach efforts, including regional workshops and webinars, despite lockdowns and limited internet access in LLMICs.

Key reported changes and metrics:
- The number of countries reporting gender-disaggregated data increased from 49 in 2019 to 62 in the current round.
- Six new economies started reporting data on mobile money.
- The number of countries reporting data on mobile and internet banking increased by over 25 percent.
- Reporting by FCS declined slightly but remained strong with 22 countries reporting data in 2020, equivalent to 52 percent.
- Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the total number of reporters declined to 159 countries in 2020.
- Mobile money reporting increased to 79 reporting countries in 2020 (six new reporters).
- 62 countries report gender-disaggregated data to the FAS in 2020.
- Countries reporting data on mobile and internet banking increased to 86 in 2020 relative to 68 in the preceding year.

### Outreach and the Financial Access COVID-19 Policy Tracker
- Two webinars on financial access data collection targeted Latin America and the Caribbean (November 2020) and Francophone Africa (January 2021) to improve FAS coverage and facilitate peer learning.
  - Ecuador began reporting after participating in the WHD webinar.
  - The Francophone Africa webinar had 35 officials from 7 central banks covering 21 jurisdictions predominantly from LLMICs.
  - The Latin America and Caribbean webinar included participants from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Peru.
- The Financial Access COVID-19 Policy Tracker was launched in June 2020 to document FAS-related policy responses focused on mitigating the pandemic’s impact on inequality.
  - The tracker collates policy measures targeted to (i) assist small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and (ii) facilitate a move away from cash to digital financial services, especially mobile money transactions.
  - As of April 2021, the tracker has been downloaded over 3,000 times.
  - As of January 2021, the tracker includes information for 131, 18, and 28 jurisdictions regarding SME finance, mobile money, and other digital financial services, respectively.
- Policy measures documented in the tracker were classified into categories for SME Finance, Mobile Money, and Other Digital Financial Services, including:
  - SME Finance: Debt moratorium; Loan guarantee; Financial assistance; Lower interest rates; Tax relief.
  - Mobile Money: Reduced transaction fees; Increased balance & transaction limits; Flexible Know Your Customer (KYC) onboarding.
  - Other Digital Financial Services: Reduced transaction fees; Increased balance & transaction limits; Flexible KYC onboarding; Simplified transaction processes.
- Outreach highlighted the FAS and the Policy Tracker via a virtual webinar organized by the International Finance Corporation, the 2020 FAS Trends and Developments pamphlet (November 2020), IMF Chart of the Week, and a COVID-19 Special Series Note “Mobile Money in the COVID-19 Pandemic” (October 2020), presented at the 2020 IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings and translated into French.

### Work Moving Forward
- Webinars will continue to improve data reporting for the FY 2022 FAS round; the MCD regional workshop will be converted into possibly two webinars to accommodate time zones and will follow the WHD and AFR webinar formats with participant presentations and discussion sessions. Another webinar will target anglophone African countries that have not yet participated.
- The 2021 FAS data validation process will continue to deploy recently developed validation tools, including automated data visualization of country-level data and outlier detection; metadata review incorporating new information from counterparts will be carried out simultaneously.
- The FAS will stay agile and provide supporting tools to facilitate data reporting, with specific initiatives including:
  - Expanding the Policy Tracker to include policy measures that support women’s financial access.
  - Preparing a note to give more visibility to increased gender-disaggregated reporting and to further encourage gender reporting.
  - Exploring collection of data from non-traditional sources for fintech-related statistics and promoting current FAS data collection on digital finance. Specific actions:
    - A working paper will feature mobile money data from the FAS, examine the statistical treatment of mobile money in monetary statistics, and use open-source data on mobile money transactions in Kenya to analyze usage patterns and enhanced services such as savings and loan accounts.
    - Geolocation data from the Google Maps Application Program Interface will be used to visualize the distribution of mobile money agent outlets and Automated Teller Machines in Kenya to supplement FAS country-level data.
    - Reporting jurisdictions have been requested to respond to a brief questionnaire on the availability of fintech data, such as digital lending platforms and big tech credit, and on the availability of gender-disaggregated data for digital financial services.
    - Other non-traditional data sources will be explored to gather information on fintech products/services that enable further financial inclusion, such as peer-to-peer lending.

### Key statistics and operational notes
- Total reporters in 2020: 159 countries.
- Mobile money reporting in 2020: 79 reporting countries.
- Gender-disaggregated reporters in 2020: 62 countries (up from 49 in 2019).
- Mobile and internet banking reporters in 2020: 86 countries (up from 68 in 2019).
- FCS reporting in 2020: 22 countries, equivalent to 52 percent.
- Financial Access COVID-19 Policy Tracker downloads as of April 2021: over 3,000.
- Tracker coverage as of January 2021: 131 jurisdictions for SME finance; 18 jurisdictions for mobile money; 28 jurisdictions for other digital financial services.

*IMF — D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan (May 2021–October 2022).*

### 66.      To support countries hit hard by the crisis and close to the LLMC income threshold, the IMF

### D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan (May 2021–October 2022)

### Extension of Temporary Eligibility and Reassessment
- The IMF proposes to extend the temporary expansion of D4D eligibility for countries hit hard by the crisis and close to the LLMIC income threshold.
- The IMF will reassess countries to be granted D4D eligibility once the World Bank publishes the new LLMIC list in July 2021.
- STA will conduct an analysis and present a proposal for a new extended list of D4D Fund eligible countries for the SC’s endorsement in the quarterly report in October 2021.
- Expansion would be temporary and tabled again for SC approval at its next meeting.
- Five out the seven countries approved by the SC at the June 2020 meeting benefited from D4D-funded CD (see paragraph 8).

### Revisions to Operational Guidelines and CDMAP Integration
- The operational guidelines of the D4D Fund have been revised to fit the new processes and language of CDMAP, the Fund’s new CD management and administration system that brings together CD plans, budgets, and results across the Fund’s CD portfolio.
- Guidelines also revised to reflect the evolution of some of the D4D Fund processes.
- Proposed revisions are presented for SC endorsement (Annex 2).

### Issues for Endorsement (Table 12) — Description and Budget Implication
- Module 1, Sub Module Real Sector Statistics: $3.72 million (Tables 4, 5, 6, & 7)
- Module 1, Sub Module External Sector Statistics: $3.61 million (Tables 4 & 8)
- Module 1, Sub Module Fiscal and Debt Reporting: $4.39 million (Tables 4 & 9)
- Module 1, Ad-hoc Advisory Services: $0.25 million (Table 4 & Section II)
- Module 2: Financial Access Survey: $2.45 million (Tables 4 & 10)
- Module 3: Online Learning: $7.13 million (Table 4 & Section IV - C)
- Module 4: Statistical Information Management: $0.33 million (Tables 4 & 11)
- Program Manager: $1.16 million (Table 4)
- Lapse-of-Time Approval of Changes to Work Plan - Section V
- Country Eligibility Criteria - Section V
- Update of Operational Guidelines - Section V & Annex 2

### Donor Engagement and Reporting Timeline
- Two virtual donor check-in meetings are planned: October 2021 and January 2022, to provide donors the opportunity to provide guidance on work plan orientation.
- An interim report in January 2022 will update SC members on progress and demand evolving for the FY 2023 Resource Allocation Plan and present a detailed request for the D4D Fund extension.
- Regular donor check-ins, complemented by additional documentation, will ensure continued full engagement with donors on work plan implementation.

### Mid-term Independent Program Evaluation
- Mid-term evaluation launched in October 2020 and expected to be completed by May 2022.
- Procurement process for an evaluation provider concluded; terms of reference reviewed by the Evaluation Sub-Committee.
- Contracting of the selected firm is under way; first deliverable—an inception note—to be prepared by October 2021.
- The mid-term evaluation will assess performance of the program compared to its stated objectives as formulated in the Program Document and provide insights on enhancing impact and the next phase of the D4D Fund.
- Evaluation Sub-Committee members include: (i) D4D Fund SC: Japan, Luxembourg, Switzerland; (ii) D4D Fund CD Recipients: Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam; and (iii) IMF: AFR, APD, FAD, ICD and STA.

### Strategic Log Frame — Overall Strategic Objective
- D4D Fund’s Strategic Objective: Assist LLMICs in strengthening national statistical systems to cope with a challenging national and international policy environment, promote transparency and accountability, and offer efficient solutions to capacity development.
- Note: Capacity development could also be extended to Upper Middle-income Countries that have policy-relevant data deficiencies in the modules included in the D4D Fund.

### Module 1: Real, External, and Fiscal & Debt Statistics — Objectives and Outcomes

- Objective (Module 1): Policymakers and the public have access to more and better data in three main statistical domains (real, external, and fiscal and debt statistics) to support policy analysis and formulation, detect economic risks and vulnerabilities, and enhance transparency and accountability.

Real Sector Statistics — Objective 1: High-frequency indicators of economic activity (HFIs)
- Outcome: Strengthened compilation and dissemination of well-defined HFIs.
- Baseline: Currently about two-thirds of LLMICs compile some type of a monthly or quarterly economic activity indicator.
- Five-year targets:
  - supported at least 10 countries currently not producing HFIs to compile and disseminate an indicator for a significant activity/sector in the economy;
  - assisted at least 15 additional countries to strengthen the compilation and dissemination of well-defined HFIs of economic activity.
- Data sources: Follow-up assessments through IMF CD activities; Dissemination on NSDPs, IMF databases, and/or country web sites.

Real Sector Statistics — Objective 2: National Accounts Benchmarking and Rebasing
- Rationale: Benchmarking and rebasing every five to ten years ensures accurate reflection of structure and level of economic activity and supports SDG monitoring.
- Baseline facts:
  - Currently, about half of LLMICs have not updated their national account benchmarks/base year for more than 10 years.
  - More than 70 percent of LLMICs do not produce quarterly GDP in constant prices.
- Five-year targets and outputs:
  - supported at least 15 countries in the release of updated benchmark estimates of GDP based on improved source data and methods;
  - Updated business registers in 10 countries;
  - Updated business survey /program content in 15 countries;
  - 10 new memorandums of understanding are signed and implemented to provide the NSO with access to data from outside government departments;
  - 10 countries augment their existing prices statistics program with the release of new price index.
- Dissemination and verification: Revised estimates published on NSO websites with revision reports; reports and updated questionnaires publicly disseminated; MOUs signed and regular data transfers occurring.

Real Sector Statistics — Objective 3: Residential Property Price Index (RPPI)
- Outcome: Strengthened compilation and dissemination of RPPIs and related infrastructure, source data, serviceability and metadata.
- Five-year approach:
  - For around one-tenth of eligible countries that already have a basic RPPI: bring compilation and dissemination in line with the Handbook on Residential Property Price Indices and increase staff capacity.
  - For around one-eighth of eligible countries currently working on RPPI: increase staff capacity through CD.
  - For around four-fifths of eligible countries with no RPPI: regional workshops and follow-up TA missions if sufficient progress in basic data collection.
- Follow-up: Assessments through IMF CD activities; dissemination on NSDPs, IMF databases, and/or country web sites.

External Sector Statistics — Objective and Outcomes
- Objective: High-quality balance of payments statistics compiled and disseminated to allow monitoring of cross-border risks and facilitate analysis of global trade, digitalization and financial integration.
- Five-year submodule targets:
  - provide more accurate and comprehensive data on international trade in goods and services for at least 15 eligible countries.
  - provide more accurate and comprehensive coverage of the financial account and remittances in at least 15 eligible countries.
- Indicators to monitor progress include:
  - targeted countries develop and utilize new data sources;
  - new/improved data compiled and disseminated to facilitate analysis of global value chains and the digital economy;
  - improved coverage of goods including informal cross-border transactions;
  - improved scope of key financial account components including direct investment and external debt; improved coverage of remittances; widened coverage of private sector external debt transactions; improved consistency between stocks and flows.
- Measurement: Follow-up assessments through IMF CD activities; Dissemination on NSDPs, IMF databases, and/or country web sites; IMF Article IV and program staff reports.
- Caution: Errors and omissions metric may not show a linear trend as many factors affect it.

Fiscal and Debt Reporting — Objective and Outcomes
- Objective: Improved government finance statistics (GFS) and public sector debt statistics (PSDS) to support fiscal policymaking, assessment and monitoring of fiscal risks and debt sustainability, and transparency and accountability.
- GFS outcomes (for around one-third of LLMICs, depending on needs assessment):
  - frequency improved from annual to quarterly or from quarterly to monthly;
  - high-frequency GFS follow latest GFS manual classifications and presentation;
  - institutional coverage expanded;
  - internal consistency improved (reduction of statistical discrepancy);
  - scope of transactions/stock positions improved to capture policy-relevant items;
  - regular and sustained compilation and dissemination with improved timeliness;
  - dissemination of adequate metadata and documentation of business processes.
- PSDS outcomes (for around half of LLMICs, depending on needs assessment):
  - frequency improved from annual to quarterly or from quarterly to monthly;
  - PSDS follow PSDS Guide classifications and presentation;
  - institutional coverage expanded to include, e.g., debt of state-owned enterprises;
  - scope of stock positions improved to capture contingent liabilities and arrears;
  - regular and sustained compilation and dissemination with improved timeliness;
  - dissemination of adequate metadata and documentation of business processes.
- Data sources: Follow-up assessments through IMF CD activities; Dissemination on NSDPs, IMF databases, and/or country web sites; IMF Art. IV and program staff reports; PSDS re-dissemination in IMF and IMF/World Bank PSDS databases; debt sustainability analyses.

### Module 2: Financial Access Survey (FAS) — Objectives and Outcomes
- Objective: Provide policymakers and analysts with high-quality statistics on financial inclusion through the FAS database.
- Outcomes:
  - Continued production of the FAS, sent annually to all IMF members; data validated by IMF staff according to reporting guidelines; data disseminated on a rolling basis immediately following validation.
  - By the end of the five-year D4D Fund period:
    - The annual response rate to the FAS is increased to 95 percent of the IMF membership;
    - The number of participating jurisdictions providing information on the gender breakdown of FAS is increased by two-fold compared to the 2017 benchmark;
    - The number of participating jurisdictions providing indicators of innovative channels of financial access is increased by 50 percent compared to the 2017 benchmark.
  - Provide monitoring basis for SDG financial inclusion indicator (8.10.1) and data on the number of commercial bank branches and ATMs per 100,000 adults on an annual basis, covering at least 90 percent of the world population.
  - Contribute to research and policy agenda: FAS data used to create a global financial inclusion index and featured in IMF reports on financial inclusion.
- Data sources: IMF FAS website; United Nations SDG Indicators Global Database; published IMF reports and analytical publications.

### Module 3: Online Learning — Objectives and Outcomes
- Objective: Expand global reach of statistics training by developing and rolling out a new structured online learning curriculum.
- Outcomes and targets:
  - Development and implementation of a new online training curriculum covering eight fundamental statistical topical courses.
  - Translation in up to 5 languages, depending on availability of resources.
  - Certification from online training established as entry requirement to improve efficiency of face-to-face intermediate and advanced training.
  - Phasing in of online courses: One coming on-stream during Year 1, two in Year 2-4, and one in Year 5. Priority to most oversubscribed face-to-face courses.
  - Increase reach of STA training by at least 50 percent by the end of the D4D Fund period.
- Data source: IMF tracking system for online learning.

### Module 4: Statistical Information Management — Objectives and Outcomes
- Objective: Streamline, standardize and automate statistical information management to enhance countries’ ability to compile and disseminate macroeconomic and financial statistics.
- Outcomes:
  - Disseminate and facilitate implementation of best practices in statistical data and metadata management and related frameworks established by the international community, including governance structures, technical standards and statistical information models, and advice on project design.
  - Enable recipient agencies to design and implement state-of-the-art statistical information management structures and tools, facilitating joining IMF data dissemination standards and reducing reporting burdens.
  - Pilots: Kenya (2017), Lebanon, Egypt and/or Tunisia (planned for FY 2019) to guide selection of indicators to measure progress in this module.
- Measurement: Follow-up assessments through IMF CD activities.

*Source: D4D Fund Annual Report and Work Plan, IMF (May 2021–October 2022).*

### Annex II . Draft Operational Guidance Note (to be endorsed at the

### Annex II. Draft Operational Guidance Note (to be endorsed at the June 15, 2021 SC meeting)

### A. Steering Committee (SC) — Role, Composition, Leadership, Decisions, Meetings
- Purpose:
  - The Data for Decisions (D4D) Fund is an IMF multi-partner initiative to put more and better data in the hands of decision-makers to enhance evidence-based macroeconomic policies and support achievement of the sustainable development goals.
  - The SC provides strategic guidance and assists in setting priorities; it endorses the work plans, budgets, and annual reports of the D4D Fund.
- Composition:
  - The SC shall be composed of representatives from each Contributor of the D4D subaccount, and the IMF.
- Chair and Vice-Chair:
  - The SC is chaired by a Contributor with a strong interest in the operations of the D4D Fund.
  - The IMF proposes to the SC a Chair and a Vice Chair.
  - The Chair and Vice Chair are elected by consensus.
  - The term of the Chair and Vice Chair is one year, at the end of which the Vice Chair seated at that time becomes the Chair.
  - Principal role of the Chair:
    - Preside over the SC and, if desired, host the SC meeting.
    - Be consulted on the preparation of the agenda, potential contentious issues, or issues of urgency before they are brought to the SC as a whole.
    - When decisions are required of the SC outside of meetings, the IMF convenes the decision by circulation of an e-mail to SC members with information and the notification of a period of non-objection if applicable.
    - The Vice Chair assumes the role of Chair when the Chair is absent.
- Decisions:
  - SC decisions (including the endorsement of the work plan) are made by consensus.
  - In determining consensus, each party entitled to have a representative on the SC shall have one voice, regardless of the number of its representatives in attendance.
  - If consensus is not possible, the proposed decision is postponed or withdrawn.
  - The SC reserves the right to further define the decision-making process during SC meetings.
  - When decisions are required of the SC outside of meetings:
    - Such decisions shall be made by circulation of an e-mail to SC members with relevant information.
    - Lapse-of-time decision making period is 15 days but may be adjusted under special circumstances.
- Meetings:
  - The SC meets in person or by videoconference annually.
  - The Chair may also convene meetings on an ad-hoc basis.
  - The SC approves the minutes of SC meetings, prepared by the IMF.
  - Observers may be invited to participate in SC meetings on a case-by-case basis, at the invitation of the SC.
  - The SC decides which observers may be invited, and which part of the SC meeting the observer(s) will attend.

### B. Work Plan — Preparation and Changes
- Preparation:
  - A work plan is distributed three weeks before the relevant SC meeting.
- Changes requiring SC endorsement:
  - The SC endorses:
    - changes to objectives within a Module (for Modules 2, 3, 4) and Sub-modules (for Module 1).
    - the addition/removal of outcomes that result in Module/Sub-module budget changes of more than 25 percent.
  - For changes within the thresholds above (including changes to the budget only of less than 25 percent), notification is provided to the SC at the next reporting point.
- Threshold clarification (as stated in accompanying notes):
  - Thresholds stated above are measured against the last endorsed proposal/budget/duration (i.e., multiple changes within the limits cannot stretch beyond the threshold).
  - This corresponds with the internal controls at the “Funding Program” level, which in case of the D4D Fund can be modules (Module 2– Financial Access Survey; Module 3–Online learning; Module 4–Statistical Information Management), or submodules (Module 1–External Sector Statistics; Module 1–Fiscal and Debt Reporting; Module 1–Real Sector Statistics).

### C. Reporting
- Annual reporting:
  - Annually, the D4D Fund provides a report on its activities to the SC.
- Technical Assistance Reports:
  - The IMF provides Technical Assistance Reports (TAR) on the Partners Connect platform, which all Contributors to the D4D Fund are authorized to access.

### D. Evaluation
- External evaluation:
  - As per the Terms and Conditions of the D4D Subaccount, activities financed under the D4D Fund are subject to an external, independent evaluation.
  - The SC shall endorse the terms of reference and methodology to be used in the independent evaluation.

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/capacity-developement/d4d/4th-meeting/d4d-fund-annual-report-and-work-plan-may-2021-october-2022.pdf_