## D4D Fund Delivery During the Pandemic: A Springboard

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**Canonical URL:** [D4D Fund Delivery During the Pandemic: A Springboard](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/capacity-developement/d4d/4th-meeting/d4d-fund-delivery-during-the-pandemic-a-springboard.pdf)

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### Overview
- Presentation by Alain Gaugris, D4D Fund Program Manager, IMF Statistics Department, dated JUNE 15, 2021.
- Focus on how D4D-funded capacity development (CD) adapted and delivered during the COVID-19 pandemic.

### Challenges of CD During the Pandemic
- Demand for data increased to understand:
  - economic activity
  - external flows
  - debt levels
  - inequality
- Capacity to generate data decreased in LLMICs:
  - Access to traditional data sources deteriorated.
  - Funding by donors unchanged; rising domestic fiscal pressure.
  - IT limitations.
  - CD absorption capacity weakened.
- Remote delivery required different approaches:
  - new training material, flexible timing.
  - Slowed implementation of project-based CD with medium-term objectives; delivered shorter interventions to address specific challenges.
  - Used online learning material for blended learning.

### Work Plan Implementation and Delivery Modalities
- D4D-funded CD implementation accelerated but used less resources over time, with Africa (AFR) and Asia (APD) as priority targets.
- Met the challenge by delivering 77 CD activities from May 2020 to April 2021.
- After 12 out of the 18-month work plan:
  - 1/2 of work plan implemented.
  - 1/3 of beneficiary countries were FCS.
- Delivery types:
  - TA Missions: 57 virtual TA missions benefitting 42 different countries.
  - Regional Trainings: 20 virtual workshops/webinars benefiting 706 country representatives from 84 different countries.
- Flexibility enabled by funding arrangements approved by the Steering Committee:
  - 5/7 of Extended List of Beneficiary Countries received CD (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Jordan, Kosovo, Sri Lanka).
  - 53 Ad-Hoc Advisory Services fulfilled (demand highest for fiscal topics).
  - 9 COVID-19 Special Series Webinars (most on fiscal and debt reporting): GFSx | BOP-IIPX | PSDSx in French and Spanish | NASx (NASx launched in June 2021).
  - Financial Access COVID-19 Policy Tracker: 3,000+ downloads as of end-FY21.
  - M2 total of 448 participants.

### Promising Outcomes Across Work Streams
- Implementation overview emphasized outputs, activities, and outcomes across modules.
- Delivery per module noted chronic underfunding of many national statistics offices complicated CD delivery.

### Module M1 — Addressing Data Needs and Quality Concerns
- Real Sector Statistics (RSS), High-frequency Indicators (HFIs), Monthly Indicator of Economic Growth (MIEG):
  - Low implementation rates despite relevance.
  - Adopted flexible CD approach: STA experts compile HFIs for compilers to reduce workload; traditional comments follow.
  - CD targeted fragile states: Congo, Sierra Leone, Tajikistan, Togo.
- National Accounts Rebasing:
  - Pandemic year not a good base year due to fluctuations.
  - CD focused on identifying source data for future re-basing.
  - Diverse recipients: fragile states (Sierra Leone, Sudan) and more advanced economies (Indonesia, Philippines).
  - Central banks involved in compilations; implementation advanced as planned.
- Residential Property Price Indexes (RPPIs):
  - New RPPI approved in Sri Lanka; published in West Bank and Gaza.
- External Sector Statistics (ESS):
  - Immediate challenges identified in a survey led to webinars for AFR and MCD countries with 130 participants.
  - 15 remote missions delivered to advance project-based CD; some follow-ups from bilateral donor projects focusing on fragile states.
  - Mixed progress in project-based CD but tangible results in Afghanistan and Uzbekistan.
  - Survey of compilers identified source data and compilation errors in critical components as most serious challenges; another survey is under way.
  - As central banks take the lead in ESS, overall implementation has been satisfactory.
- Fiscal and Debt Reporting (GFS/PSDS):
  - 6 COVID-19 Special Series Webinars for AFR and MCD countries (2 with SOE focus).
  - Focus on SOEs in Tunisia, Lesotho, and Georgia.
  - 15 TA missions supported expansion of institutional and instrument coverage in AFR, APD and MCD.
  - Blended CD experiment in APD and AFR.
  - D4D Fund CD engaged with 70 out of the 75 LLMICs on fiscal and debt reporting.
  - Fiscal toll of the pandemic illustrated via charts on additional spending and forgone revenue vs. equity, loans, and guarantees for selected LIDCs (country list preserved in original charts).

### Module M2 — Financial Access Survey (FAS)
- Financial sector access considered key for reducing inequality, relevant given rising inequality during the crisis.
- 2020 FAS round coverage and scope:
  - Decrease in data reporting with 159 jurisdictions (from a total of 189 economies), including on gender-disaggregated statistics.
  - Reporting by fragile states remained strong with 22 of them (52 percent) reporting data.

### Module M3 — Online Learning
- Microlearning on IMF Institute Learning YouTube channel:
  - 4.77k subscribers, 66 videos.
- 6,000+ participants to the curriculum.
- BOP-IIPx rollout far exceeded expectations with over 570 active participants.
- Strong demand from African countries, LLMICs, and fragile states (FCS).
- Pilot blended learning on PSDS in AFR and APD using online material.

### Module M4 — Statistical Information Management
- Enhancing information management is medium-term; progress slowed as priorities shifted to immediate pandemic challenges.
- Tunisia information management project (started 1 year earlier) succeeded despite lockdown; migration of entire NSDP to SDMX near completion.
- Coordination with AfDB, Eurostat, and UNSD produced two SDMX workshops for African countries.
- SDMX standardizes exchange of statistical data and metadata, modernizes and automatizes data dissemination, and can lead to scalable data management efficiency and cost savings.

### Coordination With Other Partners
- Workshops and cooperation examples:
  - ESS: 2 outreach workshops for Central America economies with CEMLA on ESS reporting during the pandemic; 1 course on current ESS topics for Latin America and the Caribbean with CEMLA, OECD, and CEPAL.
  - RSS: Coordination on source data with World Bank and others—e.g., Ghana and Liberia for surveys and censuses; Somalia for first-time GDP by expenditure estimates with World Bank and Statistics Sweden.
  - GFS/PSDS/PFM: 2 workshops on DMFAS with UNCTAD; PFM development in Côte d’Ivoire with AfDB and the EC; GIZ supports implementation in Benin and Burkina Faso.
  - Online and blended learning: working group with UNCTAD, Eurostat, StatCan, UNSD.

### Key Implementation Statistics and Expenses (May 2020–April 2021)
- Total D4D-funded interventions (by work stream):
  - PSDS/GFS: No. of interventions 37; Expenses, May 2020-April 2021 (in US$) 28,088
  - ESS: No. of interventions 12; Expenses, May 2020-April 2021 (in US$) 7,544
  - RSS: No. of interventions 4; Expenses, May 2020-April 2021 (in US$) 4,173
  - TOTAL: No. of interventions 53; Expenses, May 2020-April 2021 (in US$) 39,805
- Beneficiary countries listed 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

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/capacity-developement/d4d/4th-meeting/d4d-fund-delivery-during-the-pandemic-a-springboard.pdf_