## Mid-Year Report to the D4D Fund Steering Committee (June–December 2020)

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Mid-Year Report to the D4D Fund Steering Committee (June–December 2020)](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/capacity-developement/d4d/mid-year-check-in-meeting/interim-report-to-d4d-fund-sc.pdf)

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- [Markdown version](/-/media/files/capacity-developement/d4d/mid-year-check-in-meeting/interim-report-to-d4d-fund-sc.pdf.md)
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### Overview and proposed budget adjustment
- The Mid-Year Report to the D4D Fund Steering Committee (June–December 2020) updates developments since the 3rd SC meeting held on 18 June 2020 and proposes adjustments to the workplan for SC endorsement.
- The work plan endorsed in June is described as broadly on track despite travel resumption not materializing in FY21.
- Proposal for SC endorsement: shift roughly $1.5 million of D4D Fund resources toward Module 3 (online learning courses) to ramp up online capacity development (CD).
- A mid-term evaluation of the D4D Fund has started; expected completion by May 2022 to inform lessons and program impact.

### Program implementation and key statistics (June–December 2020)
- Implementation accelerated despite pandemic travel restrictions; close to two-thirds of the 18-month capacity development activities are planned to be conducted in the fiscal year (FY).
- Table 1 figures for the 18-month work plan:
  - Number of activities in the 18-month work plan: 153
  - Activities to be implemented in FY21: 90
  - Activities completed (June - December 2020): 38
  - Activities completed (June - December 2019): 25
- Regional focus: Africa remains the main beneficiary region with almost half of the CD activities, followed by Middle East and Central Asia and Asia Pacific (as reported in the work plan breakdown).

### Remote delivery adaptations and demand-driven flexibility
- The SC’s additional flexibility on CD delivery enabled adaptation to evolving country demand; all CD activities will be delivered remotely in the fiscal year due to ongoing travel restrictions.
- Constraints to remote delivery in some beneficiary countries include connectivity problems, limited administrative capacity due to crisis management, and concerns about sharing confidential information electronically; constraints were particularly serious in some fragile states.
- Using SC-authorized flexibility for ad-hoc requests, more than 25 interventions were conducted from June to November to address urgent operational needs.

### High-Frequency Indicators (HFIs), Financial Access, and special COVID-19 initiatives
- Demand for CD on High Frequency Indicators (HFIs) surged; HFIs can guide crisis navigation and recovery policy decisions.
- STA piloted preparing HFIs for some countries using country source data complemented with Big Data where available (pilot implementation noted in Bhutan; inquiries from Georgia and Uganda).
- Financial Access Survey (FAS) expanded to provide financial inclusion measures and a Financial Access COVID-19 Policy Tracker is maintained by STA staff; Tracker had around 2,500 downloads as of mid-December.
- Examples of policies tracked: transaction fees temporarily cut in 11 countries (mainly in Africa); transaction limits increased in a similar number of economies to support mobile money usage during the pandemic.
- STA instituted a Special Series of COVID-19 Webinars: nine webinars during the summer covering PSDS, state-owned enterprise fiscal statistics, and ESS, serving a total of 108 countries.

### Online learning expansion, usage statistics, and Module 3 proposal
- Online curriculum development progressed using animated visuals with voice-over due to lack of access to the IMF studio.
- Course development and launches:
  - The Balance of Payments – International Investment Position Statistics online course (BOP-IIPx) launched in November 2020.
  - National Accounts Statistics online course (NASx) work is well under way with launch planned by mid-2021.
  - Development of the Prices Statistics online course (PRx) to start in early 2021.
- Participation figures for the first three D4D-funded online courses (PSDSx, GFSx, and BOP-IIPx): more than 2,500 participants as of 12 December 2020.
  - Participant composition: more than half from low- and lower middle-income countries; one third from Africa; one fifth from fragile states.
- Micro-learning clips derived from course video material increased outreach: over 3.1k subscribers on the micro-learning platform YouTube channel as of early 2021 (seven months after launch).
- Proposed addition to the 8-course D4D-funded curriculum:
  - A course on Quarterly National Accounts / High Frequency Indicators (QNA/HFIx).
  - A stand-alone course on Institutional Sector Accounts (ISAx) to streamline NASx content.
- Budget implications and proposed reallocation (Table 3 reported figures):
  - Adding two courses and their translation would require an increase of Module 3 budget by $1.5 million.
  - Sources of reallocation within current D4D Fund budget:
    - Module 1: at least $1 million of savings expected over the life of the D4D Fund due to travel restrictions and anticipated blended CD delivery post-pandemic.
    - Module 4: $0.5 million available for reallocation because yearly demand is unlikely to reach the assumed $300,000.
  - Initial vs. revised module budgets reported:
    - M1: Addressing Data Needs and Quality Concern USD 19–21 million → USD 18–20 million
    - M2: Financial Access Survey USD 4–5 million → USD 4–5 million
    - M3: Online Learning USD 5–7 million → USD 6.5–8.5 million
    - M4: Statistical Information Management USD 1–1.5 million → USD 0.5–1 million
    - Overall D4D Fund budget – Phase 1: USD 33.1 million → USD 33.1 million

### Coordination, partnerships, and capacity development modalities
- STA strengthened coordination with partners in the statistics CD community, including the World Bank, PARIS21, and the OECD to maximize synergies and impact under constrained resources and absorption capacity.
- Specific coordination activities:
  - Built a common Statistics CD country/topic matrix with the World Bank to facilitate country- and project-level coordination.
  - Provided inputs to an OECD evaluation of donor coordination by exchanging country experience on development co-operation for data and statistics with the OECD DAC Data for Development work stream team.
- STA is exploring blended CD delivery post-pandemic, integrating remote training, online learning, and face-to-face workshops; hands-on “training-the-trainers” sessions within STA to enhance virtual training delivery are being organized starting January 2021.

### Mid-term evaluation process
- Preparations for the mid-term evaluation began in October 2020; findings expected by May 2022 to assess program performance against Program Document objectives and provide insights to enhance D4D Fund impact.
- An Evaluation Sub-Committee (ESC) was established to provide strategic guidance; ESC membership includes STA, IMF Area Departments APD and AFR, IMF CD departments FAD and ICD, Steering Committee members (Japan, Luxembourg, Switzerland), and CD recipients (Uganda, Uzbekistan, Vietnam).
- ESC responsibilities: review draft terms of reference for the evaluation company, the inception note, and the draft evaluation report.
- Terms of reference for the evaluation firm are under ESC review; typical evaluations take 15–18 months, with potential pandemic-related challenges in obtaining recipient country responses.

### Remote ad-hoc assistance (June–November 2020)
- SC approval in June 2020 allocated a lump sum equal to 10 percent of Module 1 budget (equivalent to $292,000) for remote ad-hoc assistance; assistance limited to engagements under one business day of staff time per case and for D4D-eligible countries.
- From June to November 2020, STA fulfilled 26 requests for ad-hoc assistance at a total expense of $14,963.
- Major topics and country examples of fiscal/statistical advice provided:
  - Afghanistan: recording of tax revenue.
  - Algeria: fiscal recording of an arrangement to secure NPLs with treasury bonds.
  - Egypt: composition of domestic debt statistics and reflection in surveillance/program targets.
  - Eswatini: recording of allowances to government employees in fiscal statistics.
  - The Gambia and Central African Republic: recording of Catastrophe Containment Relief Trust in fiscal statistics.
  - Ghana: treatment of the disbursement of the IMF—Rapid Credit Facility in fiscal statistics.
  - Kyrgyz Republic: classification issues of recording fund transfers between inter-government entities.
  - Mali: recording of government support to a state-owned enterprise affecting the fiscal balance.
  - Rwanda: recording of transactions related to the economic recovery fund in monetary and fiscal statistics.
  - Uzbekistan: public sector balance sheet advice.
  - Zimbabwe: recording of insurance claims receivable in fiscal statistics.
- External sector assistance examples:
  - Kenya: treatment of corporate debt assumptions, recording of exceptional financing in the balance of payments, and IIP data review.
  - Lesotho: questions about international reserves, review of private capital flows survey questionnaire, and questions on institutional coverage and definition of government for a public finance management act update.
  - Liberia: addressing balance of payments issues, notably recording of investment income in the current account.

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/capacity-developement/d4d/mid-year-check-in-meeting/interim-report-to-d4d-fund-sc.pdf_