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### Executive summary: transparency, communications, and Fund effectiveness
- Transparency is the foundation for trust; a transparent organization is one that communicates and engages.
- Communication builds understanding of and support for the Fund’s work and its policy advice; it forms the basis for public dialogue on policies recommended by the Fund; helps to maintain trust in the institution’s advice; furthers the Fund’s overall objective of policy traction; and, in the long run, helps ensure the Fund remains a trusted advisor to member countries.
- The IMF’s Transparency Policy and its Communications Strategy are complementary: the Transparency Policy provides a framework for timely and relevant dissemination of information about the Fund’s activities, policies, and decisions to the public, while the Communications Strategy makes the Fund’s work more accessible to stakeholders and fosters meaningful dialogue, reinforcing Fund policy advice and contributing to its mission of promoting economic and financial stability.
- The Review proposes transitioning Fund communications from “doing more” to being more selective and strategic to address audience over-saturation.

### Recent context, challenges, and strategic direction
- External environment:
  - Rapid changes in the global economy and communications technology over the last decade.
  - Series of massive shocks: the pandemic, conflicts, and a cost-of-living crisis; additional shocks cited include Russia’s war in Ukraine, food insecurity, conflict in the Middle East, growing debt challenges, and climate-related disasters.
  - Social media revolution created new outreach opportunities; AI seems poised to disrupt communications further.
- Institutional implications:
  - Institutional trust will be at a premium amid continued macroeconomic uncertainty, successive shocks, AI-driven media disruption, and audience over-saturation with content.
  - Proposed strategic shifts include:
    - Strengthen channels controlled by the Fund (IMF.org, IMF Blog).
    - Unite traditional media operations with social media.
    - Deepen engagements with local/regional media and stakeholders, including early engagements to strengthen understanding of local socio-political context and integrate communications into operational work.
    - Bolster internal communications to strengthen staff community and dialogue on institutional priorities.
    - Emphasize owned media channels and integrate traditional and social media operations to respond to AI-related challenges.

### Objectives, audiences, and scope of Fund communications
- Core external objectives:
  - Support the Transparency Policy objective.
  - Raise awareness and build understanding of the Fund’s work (lending, bilateral/multilateral surveillance, capacity development).
  - Build support for Fund policies and recommendations by fostering meaningful public dialogue, thereby reinforcing trust and advancing policy persuasion and traction.
- Internal objectives:
  - Build a sense of community among staff, engage staff on institutional priorities, and highlight staff analytical, policy and country work.
- Target audiences:
  - Policymakers remain the primary audience.
  - Policy influencers: media, think tanks, academics, financial market participants, civil society organizations (CSOs), parliamentarians, trade unions, businesses, youth groups, and others influential in public debate.
  - General public reached indirectly largely via social media and through authorities’ outreach in country contexts.
- Scope and approaches:
  - Communications integrated across Fund work—global (economic outlook, policy priorities via imf.org, publications, blogs, media) and targeted/country-focused (lending programs, Article IVs).
  - Communications can be proactive (e.g., announcing the Resilience and Sustainability Trust) and reactive (e.g., responding to media or stakeholder inquiries).
  - Communications imperative in key program countries where demand for public information is higher and there is pressure to leverage communication for policy traction.
  - Communications also play a role in reputational risk management (e.g., cybersecurity breaches or misinformation).
  - No one-size-fits-all engagement strategy; priorities depend on country circumstances and institutional priorities.

### Progress, measurable outreach, and key statistics
- Institutional integration:
  - Communications integrated into lending programs, multilateral and bilateral surveillance, capacity development, management events, and Spring and Annual Meetings.
  - Outreach to more than 12,000 journalists registered to the IMF’s press center; dialogue with CSOs (e.g., 25 official meetings in 2023); interactions with parliamentarians (more than 400 attend Spring and Annual meetings each year); engagement with think tanks, academics, labor unions and the private sector.
- Digital reach in 2023:
  - IMF.org had 25 million unique visitors.
  - IMF Blog platform had 4.3 million visitors.
  - Finance & Development (F&D) magazine had 4.8 million visitors.
  - The IMF’s social media channels have nearly 8 million followers.
- Platform and publications data (selected figures):
  - IMF.org: 25 million unique visitors in 2023 versus 9.6 million in 2014.
  - eLibrary.IMF.org: more than 25,000 titles dating back to 1945; paywall removed in January 2020; since removal: up 53 percent in online visits, 47 percent in page views, and 114 percent in downloads.
  - F&D online audiences: grew from 1 million annual unique visitors in 2017 to nearly 5 million in 2023; print edition distributed to nearly 30,000 subscribers.
  - IMF Blog: management and heads of departments authored about 28 percent of posts in 2014 and nearly 50 percent in 2023; annual readership: 2.6 million “meaningful reads”; attracts 4.3 million unique visitors (accounting for 17 percent of all visitors on IMF.org).
  - Newsletters: IMF Newsletter Weekend Read (launched 2017): more than 440,000 subscribers; New and Noteworthy monthly publications newsletter: more than 300,000 subscribers; Click-through rates for New and Noteworthy are close to 2 percent, compared to 1.46 percent for an average newsletter.
  - Video and audio: IMF YouTube video series recorded 1.6 million views in 2023; IMF Podcast in 2023: 264,000 downloads and approximately 150,000 streams.
  - Social media growth: 2014 had seven accounts on two platforms (X and Facebook) and about 360,000 followers; now 43 active social media accounts, in seven languages, and nearly 8 million followers.
  - Media engagement: IMF Press Center used regularly by more than 12,000 journalists as of early 2024; press releases: average of 500 per year, with 1.3 million unique views in 2023; livestreams: 62 press briefings in 2023.
- Stakeholder survey (Appendix II): global stakeholder survey finds the Fund is seen as one of the most effective, trustworthy, and influential multilateral institutions.

### Tensions, coordination, and governance
- Tension highlighted:
  - Balance between the Fund’s role as a trusted advisor to country authorities and the Transparency Policy objective to inform the public when crucial policies imperative for stabilization are off-track.
  - Practical implications: difficult judgement calls; in market-sensitive situations, open communications may not always be possible.
- Coordination with other IFIs:
  - Communications approach informed by and coordinated with World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, OECD, and others.
  - Coordination activities include sessions during Spring and Annual Meetings, dedicated events, targeted dialogues, and jointly coordinated external communications such as press releases.
- Executive Board role:
  - Sets strategic framework for communications; institution communicates all Board-approved policies and decisions, including Article IV reports, program decisions, and policy reports.
  - Supports Board communications activities and transformed the Board’s Annual Report content and design.
  - Individual Board member communications with media and other stakeholders governed by the Board code of conduct.
- Legal and governance framework:
  - Legal frameworks on who can speak for the Fund and illustrative disclaimers for Concluding Statements and Staff Press Releases Published at the End of Missions (Appendices V and VI of the 2014 Review) remain in effect.
  - The 2014 Review recommended more frequent formal Executive Board reviews; this Review resumes an updated assessment.

### AI, media shifts, and owned channels
- Media landscape observations:
  - Audiences for traditional media continue to shrink; social media algorithms deprioritize news; conversations moving to closed channels.
  - Advent of AI increases risk of misinformation and questions about authenticity; messenger may become more important than message.
- Strategic response:
  - Strengthen reliance on owned channels (IMF.org, eLibrary.IMF.org, IMF Blog, F&D magazine) for open, timely, trustworthy communication and to build stakeholder communities.
  - Strengthen content curation and governance; prioritize most-relevant issues aligned with staff, policymakers and stakeholders and the news cycle.
- AI-related risks and opportunities (Box 3):
  - Risks: deep fakes, brand misrepresentation, broader mistrust in the media; generative AI summaries in search results could disintermediate users from IMF platforms if AI returns comprehensive content without links.
  - Opportunities: automate trend analysis and sentiment assessment, language translation, content creation, content tagging and metadata generation, report summarizing, data visualization, internal communications enhancements; AI-powered assistants could enhance search functionality.
  - Current IMF AI implementations:
    - Custom AI chatbot "Aida" for economic data analysis and real-time insights; includes AI-based translation.
    - Use of Microsoft's Copilot to enhance productivity in Microsoft applications.
    - AI applications for thematic categorization, Boolean optimization and translation for media analysis.
    - Exploration of a custom sentiment analysis model and a consolidated data dashboard for overview of key metrics.
  - Priority: ethical considerations remain an important component of the Fund’s AI approach.

### Regional, country, and stakeholder engagement
- Emphasis on regional and country issues to explain policy advice and tradeoffs, particularly in priority and program countries, Article IVs, and capacity development.
- Media capacity-building and metrics:
  - Regional Media Training and IMF JFP:
    - In 2023 the Fund organized six regional media training courses jointly with the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF), instructing 87 reporters from 38 countries, with emphasis on digital media representation.
    - Since the JFP was initiated in 2006, the Fund has invited over 500 journalists from low- and middle-income countries to attend the Spring and Annual Meetings and conducted training.
  - Continue investment in these programs and deepen engagement, including through an alumni group to maintain steady engagement with media practitioners.
  - Increase communication in LOE to improve reach and reception in regions/countries.
- Stakeholder engagement expansion:
  - Build on strengthened engagement with global CSOs, think tanks and parliamentarians to make interactions more diverse, working with resident representatives to strengthen outreach to local/regional CSOs, think tanks and academia, including regional workshops and more IMF101 discussions.
  - Plans to resume civil society and academic fellowships to increase participation from emerging and developing economies in the Spring and Annual Meetings.
  - Engage stakeholders to update the 2015 Staff Guidance Note on Stakeholder Engagement.
- Early engagement and operational integration:
  - Bring communications upstream into Fund operations to consider reputational risk and improve transparency and impact; advance stakeholder engagement earlier in the process, especially in program countries, to inform policy advice with on-ground social/political feedback.
  - Strengthen communications skills across the institution via training, playbooks, narratives and messaging toolkits for risk management, and facilitation of country-level communications in complex circumstances.
  - Note: direct engagement and relationship management with country authorities do not come under the purview of the Fund’s communication strategy, but institutional communication capacity is critical to increasing traction of Fund policy advice.

### Internal communications, culture, and impact measurement
- Internal communications experience and outcomes:
  - Pre-pandemic focus on digital products (improved intranet, digital signage, video messages).
  - Pandemic adaptation: increased short videos from a couple per month to 150 videos in the 12-month period following the onset of the pandemic to preserve staff connection and sense of community.
  - Ongoing focus: nurturing a vibrant culture, innovating formats for new and younger employees, and keeping staff informed about institutional priorities.
- Impact assessment and data-driven communications (Box 2):
  - Evolution from quarterly content performance reviews to real-time analytical tools and AI-enabled assessment.
  - Key actions:
    - Shift from basic to actionable indicators (e.g., “meaningful reads”, scroll depth trackers, enhanced metadata, citation analysis).
    - Standardize benchmarks, performance indicators and reporting; develop a comprehensive suite of impact reports.
    - Strengthen team capabilities in data analytics and update analytical tools.
    - More regular surveys: polls, interviews, focus groups, workshops, and more frequent global surveys.
    - Enhanced metadata management and embedded codes for publications; subscriptions to citation services including Copyright Clearance Center, Altmetric, and Overton.
  - Internal engagement metrics:
    - Intranet engagement increased significantly.
    - Email open rates for Fundalls (including the Weekly Roundup) are above 50 percent, compared with industry benchmark of 20-30 percent.
    - New internal formats: video series (2020), professionally produced talk shows (2021), staff-generated content, blogs, podcasts, and event series focused on employee health and wellness, knowledge sharing and social interaction.
  - Updated internal impact framework to gauge staff engagement will include: (a) multi-channel analysis; (b) content analysis monitoring uptake and resonant topics/formats/platforms; (c) gathering staff feedback through immediate polls during or after events.

### Evidence-based communications: selected examples (Appendix III)
- Increasing traffic and optimization:
  - Data-driven decisions on topics, tone, timing, format, editing and graphics associated with growth in public engagement.
- Factsheets discoverability:
  - 46 English-language Factsheets translated into six languages to create 322 redesigned factsheets.
  - Outcomes in 2023 compared to 2021: 23 percent increase in web traffic and 42 percent increase in readership; some languages recorded over a 50 percent increase in traffic through search engines.
- F&D LOE content migration outcomes:
  - Before migration: around 319,000 combined monthly pageviews and downloads.
  - After migration: 554,000 monthly interactions.
  - Online readership (“meaningful reads”) increased by 425 percent.
  - Search engine traffic more than doubled; social platform traffic increased nearly fivefold.
  - Geographic growth examples: Tenfold growth in F&D traffic from Myanmar and Thailand; threefold increase from Egypt and Mexico; significant increases from small island states such as the Bahamas, Saint Martin, Bonaire and Guyana.
- Editorial calibration and traction:
  - October 2023 WEO blog “Resilient Global Economy Still Limping Along, With Growing Divergences” achieved number-one Google position for “global economy,” leading to 100,000 pageviews, more than 50,000 meaningful reads during 2023, and 80 percent of all traffic for the blog from search engines.
  - April 2023 WEO Chapter 2 blog “Interest Rates Likely to Return toward Pre-Pandemic Levels when Inflation Is Tamed” resulted in over 145,000 pageviews and 21,000 meaningful reads.
- A/B testing and platform optimization:
  - Since 2020, social media A/B testing informed headline messaging and content formats; analytics led to discontinuing livestreams on Facebook and Twitter and focusing livestreams on IMF.org, YouTube, and LinkedIn for greater effectiveness and resource efficiency.

### Parliamentary and civil society engagement (Box 5)
- Parliamentary Network (PN):
  - Global organization with lawmakers from 147 countries.
  - PN membership: 2,000 parliamentarians.
  - Major PN forums held during Spring and Annual meetings; since founding, PN forums attended by nearly 10,000 parliamentarians.
  - During the pandemic, online educational sessions for parliamentarians on digital finance, debt, and poverty reduction.
  - Examples of PN influence in program countries: Sri Lanka, Ukraine, Kenya, and Zambia; PN members supported IMF fundraising around the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust.
- Civil Society Organization engagement:
  - 2015 Staff Guidelines on IMF Engagement with Civil Society Organizations underpin engagement.
  - Since 2015, more than nine major open public consultations with CSOs on debt, governance and anticorruption, social spending, AML/CFT, and international corporate taxation.
  - Views of CSOs published in Executive Board papers under consideration.
  - Since 2023, Fund staff proactively engaged with local, regional, and global CSOs on a quarterly basis.
- Civil Society Policy Forum (CSPF):
  - CSPF convenes more than 800 CSO representatives during Spring/Annual Meetings.
  - Hybrid format post-pandemic enabling broader participation; all sessions recorded and uploaded to IMF.org; interpretation in different languages provided.

*Review of the IMF’s Communications Strategy — content from ppea2024061.*

### EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

### EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

### Transparency, communications, and the Fund’s effectiveness
- Transparency is the foundation for trust; a transparent organization is one that communicates and engages.
- Communication builds understanding of and support for the Fund’s work and its policy advice; it forms the basis for public dialogue on policies recommended by the Fund; helps to maintain trust in the institution’s advice; furthers the Fund’s overall objective of policy traction; and, in the long run, helps ensure the Fund remains a trusted advisor to member countries.
- The IMF’s Transparency Policy and its Communications Strategy are complementary: the Transparency Policy provides a framework for timely and relevant dissemination of information about the Fund’s activities, policies, and decisions to the public, while the Communications Strategy makes the Fund’s work more accessible to stakeholders and fosters meaningful dialogue, reinforcing Fund policy advice and contributing to its mission of promoting economic and financial stability.

### Recent context, challenges, and opportunities
- The last decade saw rapid changes in the global economy and transformations in communications technology; more recently the world experienced a series of massive shocks (the pandemic, conflicts, and a cost-of-living crisis).
- These shocks increased the importance of communications while the social media revolution created new outreach opportunities.
- The communications landscape continues to evolve: social media disrupted communications over the past decade, and AI seems poised to do so in the next.
- Institutional trust will be at a premium amid continued macroeconomic uncertainty, successive shocks, AI-driven media disruption, and audience over-saturation with content.

### Progress and measurable outreach
- The Fund has integrated communications into lending programs, multilateral and bilateral surveillance, capacity development, management events, and Spring and Annual Meetings.
- The Fund’s communications operation includes outreach to more than 12,000 journalists registered to the IMF’s press center; dialogue with civil society organizations (e.g., 25 official meetings in 2023); interactions with parliamentarians (more than 400 attend Spring and Annual meetings each year); and engagement with think tanks, academics, labor unions and the private sector.
- Digital reach in 2023:
  - IMF.org had 25 million unique visitors.
  - IMF Blog platform had 4.3 million visitors.
  - Finance & Development (F&D) magazine had 4.8 million visitors.
  - The IMF’s social media channels have nearly 8 million followers.
- The global stakeholder survey finds the Fund is seen as one of the most effective, trustworthy, and influential multilateral institutions (see Appendix II).

### Need to adapt and strategic direction
- This Review proposes transitioning Fund communications from “doing more” to being more selective and strategic to address audience over-saturation.
- Key strategic shifts proposed:
  - Strengthen communication channels and platforms controlled by the Fund, such as IMF.org and IMF Blog.
  - Unite traditional media operations with social media.
  - Deepen engagements with local/regional media and stakeholders, including early engagements to strengthen understanding of the local socio-political context and further integrate communications into operational work.
  - Continue to bolster internal communications to strengthen staff community and dialogue on institutional priorities.
  - Respond to AI-related challenges by emphasizing owned media channels and integrating traditional and social media operations more closely.

### Objectives, audiences, and scope of Fund communications
- Core external objectives:
  - Support the Transparency Policy objective.
  - Raise awareness and build understanding of the Fund’s work (lending, bilateral/multilateral surveillance, capacity development).
  - Build support for Fund policies and recommendations by fostering meaningful public dialogue, thereby reinforcing trust and advancing policy persuasion and traction.
- Internal objectives:
  - Build a sense of community among staff, engage staff on institutional priorities, and highlight staff analytical, policy and country work.
- Target audiences:
  - Policymakers remain the primary audience.
  - Policy influencers include media, think tanks, academics, financial market participants, civil society organizations (CSOs), parliamentarians, trade unions, businesses, youth groups, and others influential in public debate.
  - The Fund reaches the general public indirectly largely via social media and through authorities’ outreach in country contexts.
- Scope and approaches:
  - Communications are integrated across Fund work—global (economic outlook, policy priorities via imf.org, publications, blogs, media) and targeted/country-focused (lending programs, Article IVs).
  - Communications can be proactive (e.g., announcing the Resilience and Sustainability Trust) and reactive (e.g., responding to media or stakeholder inquiries).
  - Communications are imperative in key program countries given higher demand for public information and pressure to leverage communication for policy traction.
  - Communications also play a role in reputational risk management (e.g., cybersecurity breaches or misinformation).
  - There is no one-size-fits-all engagement strategy; priorities depend on country circumstances and institutional priorities.

### Implementation, legal framework, and governance
- Management and staff across the Fund have broadened and deepened communications; department heads, mission chiefs, resident representatives and other senior staff are active in outreach.
- The legal frameworks on who can speak for the Fund and the illustrative disclaimers for Concluding Statements and Staff Press Releases Published at the End of Missions, as laid out in Appendices V and VI of the 2014 Review of the Communications Strategy, remain in effect.
- The 2014 Review recommended more frequent formal Executive Board reviews of the Communications Strategy; this Review resumes an updated assessment given changes in the global and communications environments and the demands on Fund communications.

### Structure of the Review and measurement
- The Review assesses implementation and impact of the Communications Strategy over the last decade, examines changing dynamics, and outlines proposals to update and modernize the Fund’s communications approach.
- Appendices discuss the evolution of the Fund’s impact measurement, examples of evidence-based communications, and an overview of the recent global stakeholder survey.

*October 22, 2024 — Review of the IMF’s Communications Strategy*

### 16.      The Fund’s communication themes are guided by institutional topics and policy

### 16.      The Fund’s communication themes are guided by institutional topics and policy priorities

### Institutional guidance and alignment
- Communication themes emanate from:
  - Board work program
  - the Managing Director’s Global Policy Agenda
  - country programs and Article IVs
  - capacity development efforts
  - flagship publications (WEO, GFSR, Fiscal Monitor)
  - REOs and other Fund publications
- Result: close alignment between the Fund’s work and its communication.

### Tension: trusted advisor role vs Transparency Policy
- The Fund must balance:
  - its mandate to work with country authorities as a trusted advisor on economic policies
  - its Transparency Policy objective to inform the public when crucial policies imperative for stabilization are off-track
- Practical implications:
  - This tension can require difficult judgement calls about the appropriate communication strategy.
  - In countries facing very difficult economic circumstances and stark policy tradeoffs, engagement and open communications are critical, but not always possible when policy actions are market sensitive.
  - The Fund balances these situations continually based on circumstances—there is no timeline nor a pre-determined set of considerations for managing these responsibilities.

### Coordination with other international financial institutions
- The Fund’s communications approach is informed by and often coordinated with other institutions, including:
  - the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and others
- Coordination activities include:
  - sessions during the Spring and Annual Meetings
  - dedicated events and targeted dialogues (e.g., impact assessment framework and tools, social media best practices, leveraging AI for communication efficiencies)
  - jointly coordinated external communications such as press releases
- The Fund plans to strengthen such collaboration in the period ahead.

### Major changes in the past decade shaping communications
- Global economic context:
  - slow recovery from the global financial crisis with low growth and rising inequality within countries
  - incorporation of macro-critical aspects of climate, governance, gender, digitalization and inequality into the Fund’s work program
  - series of massive shocks more recently: the pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine, food insecurity and a cost-of-living crisis, conflict in the Middle East, growing debt challenges, climate-related disasters, and more
- Communications environment:
  - explosion in digital communications; shift of news consumption to platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and X (Twitter)
  - democratization of influence and much faster spread of news and opinion
  - pandemic enabled a hyper-digital environment, complicating institutions’ ability to cut through noise but creating new engagement opportunities

### Recalibration of communications approach
- Objective: use communications as a strategic tool to support effectiveness of policy advice and programs, aligned with Executive Board principles.
- Layering of content to meet diverse audience needs:
  - policymakers and academics: policy papers
  - think tanks and businesses: executive summaries or Blog
  - media and CSOs: briefings by paper authors or infographics
  - youth groups and the general public: bite-sized information via social media or video
- Management communications to connect technical analysis to broader audiences:
  - Management speeches (examples cited: Ms. Lagarde, Ms. Georgieva) used to drive attention to Fund messages and policy priorities
  - Studies indicate leadership significantly enhances organization reputation (one cited survey links 45 percent of an organization’s reputation to its CEO)

### Modernization and expansion of platforms (key statistics)
- IMF.org:
  - 25 million unique visitors in 2023 versus 9.6 million in 2014
- eLibrary.IMF.org:
  - now has more than 25,000 titles dating back to 1945
  - transition away from paywalls: paywall removed in January 2020
  - since removal: up 53 percent in online visits, 47 percent in page views, and 114 percent in downloads
- Finance & Development (F&D) magazine:
  - online audiences grew from 1 million annual unique visitors in 2017 to nearly 5 million in 2023
  - print edition distributed to nearly 30,000 subscribers
- IMF Blog:
  - management and heads of departments authored about 28 percent of posts in 2014 and nearly 50 percent in 2023
  - annual readership: 2.6 million “meaningful reads”
  - attracts 4.3 million unique visitors (accounting for 17 percent of all visitors on IMF.org)
- Newsletters:
  - IMF Newsletter Weekend Read (launched 2017): more than 440,000 subscribers
  - New and Noteworthy monthly publications newsletter: more than 300,000 subscribers
  - Click-through rates for New and Noteworthy are close to 2 percent, compared to 1.46 percent for an average newsletter
- Video and audio:
  - IMF YouTube video series recorded 1.6 million views in 2023
  - IMF Podcast in 2023: 264,000 downloads and approximately 150,000 streams
- Social media and followers:
  - 2014: seven accounts on two platforms (X and Facebook) and about 360,000 followers
  - now: 43 active social media accounts, in seven languages, and nearly 8 million followers
- Media engagement:
  - IMF Press Center used regularly by more than 12,000 journalists as of early 2024
  - press releases: average of 500 per year, with 1.3 million unique views in 2023
  - livestreams: 62 press briefings in 2023
- Publications program developments:
  - COVID-19 Notes series and thematic webpage provided real-time data and analysis; Notes series expanded to include climate and other topics
  - transition to free online access for IMF data and publications; enhanced discoverability on platforms including Amazon, Google Scholar, RePEc, SSRN, Barnes and Noble
  - streamlined publications workflows using digital publishing tools and outsourcing editorial/typesetting/graphic design to vendors
  - increased co-publications with UN agencies, the World Bank, OECD, and WTO
  - governance processes to ensure quality of discretionary publications (SDN Council and Publications Advisory Board)

### Stakeholder engagement and outreach
- Forums and activities built or expanded over the last decade include:
  - public consultations on specific IMF policies and topics (e.g., social spending, governance, anti-corruption)
  - roundtable discussions on debt and climate change
  - annual, biannual, and biennial high-level meetings with management
  - Global Parliamentarians Forum townhalls
  - regional meetings with Executive Directors and department directors
  - Civil Society Policy Forum
  - virtual stakeholder engagements initiated during the pandemic to increase regional and country-level conversations and participation
  - IMF101 sessions with CSOs, youth fellows, universities, and visiting delegates
- Outcome: increased awareness and understanding of the Fund’s policy recommendations, correction of misperceptions, and greater willingness to engage, though global stakeholder survey indicates more needs to be done to deepen engagement with CSOs

### Governance: the Executive Board and communications
- The Executive Board:
  - sets the strategic framework for the Fund’s communications efforts
  - the institution communicates all Board-approved policies and decisions, including Article IV reports, program decisions, and policy reports
  - supports Board communications activities (e.g., arranging meetings with external stakeholders for Board members during Spring and Annual meetings)
  - transformed the Board’s Annual Report content and design to be more engaging and interactive in multiple languages
  - requested and uses the “Communications Corner” on IMF Connect to access relevant, updated communications materials
  - individual Board member communications with media and other stakeholders are governed by the Board code of conduct

*Review of the IMF’s Communications Strategy — content from the provided chapter.*

### 29.      The Fund’s internal communications has emphasized building a shared culture and

### 29.      The Fund’s internal communications has emphasized building a shared culture and 

### Internal communications: recent experience and outcomes
- Pre-pandemic focus: strengthening staff engagement on institutional priorities through digital products such as an improved intranet, digital signage, and video messages.  
- Pandemic adaptation: preserved staff connection and sense of community by increasing use of short videos—going from a couple of videos per month to 150 videos in the 12- month period following the onset of the pandemic.  
- Operating environment challenges: abrupt shift to remote work, gradual transition to hybrid operating mode, and prolonged higher workload due to successive shocks.  
- Ongoing focus: nurturing a vibrant culture, innovating with products and formats to meet interests of new and generally younger employees, and keeping staff informed about institutional priorities.  
- Reference: See Appendix III for more on innovation around staff engagement formats.

### Transparency, trust, and the evolving role of communications (paras 30–32)
- Core premise: Transparency is the foundation for trust; a transparent organization communicates and engages.  
- Trust context: Trust in the IMF is relatively high compared to other economic institutions (see Appendix II).  
- Required continuations to preserve trust: (i) transparency in programs and policies; (ii) engagement with (and consultation of) a broad set of stakeholders; (iii) accessibility of Fund’s work and policies to foster meaningful dialogue.  
- Strategic shift called for: transition from “doing more communications” to being more strategic, evidence-based, and selective.  
  - Timeframe cited: the last 10–15 years described as an age of explosion in communications.  
  - New priorities: prioritize what is communicated; link layered communications approaches to institutional priorities, assessment of content most useful for public dialogue, impact analysis, and resource constraints.  
  - Reference: Appendix III for examples of such impact analyses.

### Impact assessment: data-driven communications (Box 2)
- Evolution: from quarterly content performance reviews to real-time analytical tools and AI-enabled assessment.  
- Key actions in the evolved approach:
  - Shift from basic to actionable indicators: focus on depth and quality of engagements (e.g., “meaningful reads” combining visits and duration; use of “scroll depth” trackers; enhanced metadata; citation analysis).  
  - Standardized benchmarks, performance indicators and reporting: developing a suite of key performance indicators and benchmarks and a comprehensive suite of impact reports.  
  - Enhanced team capabilities and tools: strengthening skills in data analytics, placing impact measurement at the center, drawing actionable insights, updating analytical tools, and exchanging knowledge with peers.  
  - More regular surveys: exploring polls, interviews, focus groups, workshops, and more regular global surveys than in the past.  
  - Enhanced metadata management system and embedded codes for publications: subscription to citation services including Copyright Clearance Center, Altmetric, and Overton to track usage and citations over long publication lifecycles.  
- External reference cited: International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC), AMEC’s Integrated Evaluation Framework, 2024.

### Media landscape shifts and implications for owned media (paras 33–34)
- Observations:
  - Audiences for traditional media continue to shrink.  
  - Social media algorithms deprioritizing news to focus more on entertainment; conversations moving to closed channels.  
  - Advent of AI increases risk of misinformation and questions about authenticity; messenger may become more important than message.  
- Strategic response: strengthen reliance on owned channels (e.g., IMF.org, eLibrary.IMF.org, the IMF Blog, F&D magazine) for open, timely, trustworthy communication and to build stakeholder communities.  
- Operational implications:
  - Strengthening content curation and governance: prioritize most-relevant issues aligned with staff, policymakers and stakeholders and the news cycle; review and enhance governance structures around publications and layered products.  
  - Growing core community of followers: explore micro engagement channels (e.g., issue- or country-based), noting users’ movement to closed channels such as e-newsletters and WhatsApp; Fund recently launched a channel on WhatsApp.

### AI: risks, opportunities, and current Fund tools (Box 3)
- AI-related risks:
  - Deep fakes, brand misrepresentation, broader mistrust in the media—demanding risk management and rapid response.  
  - Generative AI summaries in search results could disintermediate users from IMF platforms (IMF.org, eLibrary.IMF.org, IMF Blog, Podcast, and F&D pages) if AI returns comprehensive content without links.  
- AI-related opportunities:
  - Automate trend analysis and sentiment assessment, language translation, content creation, content tagging and metadata generation, report summarizing, data visualization, and internal communications enhancements.  
  - AI-powered assistants could enhance search functionality and navigation to key research and policy papers.  
- Current IMF AI implementations and explorations:
  - The IMF's custom AI chatbot, "Aida," provides tailored support for economic data analysis and real-time insights; includes an AI-based translation function for instantaneous document translation.  
  - Use of Microsoft's Copilot to enhance productivity in Microsoft applications.  
  - Deployment of AI applications for thematic categorization, Boolean optimization and translation for media analysis.  
  - Exploration of a custom sentiment analysis model and a consolidated data dashboard for overview of key metrics.  
- Priority: ethical considerations remain an important component of the Fund’s AI approach.

### Integration of traditional and social media, content modernization (paras 34 and Box 4)
- Integration rationale: blurring lines between traditional and social media motivate combining functions for message consistency, broader reach, refined targeting, and real-time stakeholder engagement.  
- Tactical notes:
  - Platforms such as X and LinkedIn help identify and connect with journalists, especially in emerging and developing economies.  
  - Reporters seek high-quality visual content; niche social media influencers act as financial media outlets.  
  - Revamping the Press Center to attract digital media practitioners and modernizing format and design of content (e.g., press releases) to suit news aggregators and social sharing.  
- Digital communications next steps (Box 4):
  - Social media: continue innovation in content and format (short video clips, animated charts, interactive quizzes), refine country-focused messages, tailor content to stakeholders (policymakers, academics, civil society, youth, public), implement data-driven methodology for engagement metrics and platform choice, and leverage social media for rapid response communications.  
  - Modernizing IMF.org: a 2021 external review commended efforts and suggested further user-friendly measures; platform and software updates on the cloud are underway and expected to conclude by end of 2025, enabling enhanced architecture, automated content refreshes, streamlined navigation, user-journey tracking, customization, and integration with other IMF repositories (e.g., iData, eLibrary.IMF.org, IMF Connect).

### Emphasis on regional, country, and stakeholder engagement (paras 35)
- Strategic need: emphasize regional and country issues in media and stakeholder engagement to explain policy advice and tradeoffs faced by country authorities, with focus on priority and program countries, Article IVs, and capacity development.  
- Specific initiatives and metrics:
  - Strengthening economic news reporting capacity in developing and low-income countries via Regional Media Training and the IMF JFP.  
    - In 2023, the Fund organized six regional media training courses jointly with the Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF), instructing 87 reporters from 38 countries, with emphasis on digital media representation.  
    - Since the JFP was initiated in 2006, the Fund has invited over 500 journalists from low- and middle-income countries to attend the Spring and Annual Meetings and conducted training.  
  - Continuing investment in these programs and deepening engagement, including through an alumni group to maintain steady engagement with media practitioners.  
  - Increasing communication in LOE to improve reach and reception in regions/countries.  
- Expanding and deepening stakeholder engagement:
  - Build on strengthened engagement with global CSOs, think tanks and parliamentarians over the last 15 years to make interactions more diverse, working with resident representatives to strengthen outreach to local/regional CSOs, think tanks and academia, including regional workshops and more IMF101 discussions.  
  - Plans to resume civil society and academic fellowships to increase participation from emerging and developing economies in the Spring and Annual Meetings.  
  - Engage stakeholders to update the 2015 Staff Guidance Note on Stakeholder Engagement.  
- Early stakeholder engagement and operational integration:
  - Bring communications upstream into Fund operations to consider reputational risk and improve transparency and impact; advance stakeholder engagement earlier in the process, especially in program countries, to inform policy advice with on-ground social/political feedback.  
  - Further integrate communications in operational work by strengthening communications skills across the institution via training, playbooks, narratives and messaging toolkits for risk management, and facilitation of country-level communications in complex circumstances.  
  - Note: direct engagement and relationship management with country authorities do not come under the purview of the Fund’s communication strategy, but institutional communication capacity is critical to increasing traction of Fund policy advice.

*Source: ppea2024061 - 29.      The Fund’s internal communications has emphasized building a shared culture and*

### Box 5. IMF Engagement with Parliamentarians and Civil Society

### Box 5. IMF Engagement with Parliamentarians and Civil Society

### Parliamentary Network (PN): scope and impact
- The Parliamentary Network (PN) is a global organization with lawmakers from 147 countries.
- PN membership: 2,000 parliamentarians representing diverse economies.
- Major PN forums are held during the Spring and Annual meetings.
- Since its founding, PN forums have been attended by nearly 10,000 parliamentarians.
- During the pandemic, the Fund developed online educational sessions with parliamentarians on topics such as digital finance, debt, and poverty reduction.
- Examples of PN influence in program countries:
  - Sri Lanka: PN members played a role in calling for and supporting the IMF’s governance diagnostics report.
  - Ukraine, Kenya, and Zambia: PN members continue to play an important role in passing crucial legislation.
- PN members have supported the IMF’s fundraising efforts around its Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust through advocacy.

### Civil Society Organization (CSO) engagement: framework and mechanisms
- In 2015, Fund management approved the Staff Guidelines on the IMF Engagement with Civil Society Organizations.
- Main elements of the guidelines:
  - Public consultations on specific IMF policies at global, regional, and national levels and via virtual/in–person meetings, workshops, panel discussions, and surveys.
  - Since 2015, the IMF launched more than nine major open public consultations with CSOs on topics including debt, governance and anticorruption, social spending, AML/CFT, and international corporate taxation.
  - Views of CSOs expressed through these consultations are published in the respective Executive Board papers under consideration.
  - Active and regular engagement with CSO experts at global, regional, and national levels to bring different perspectives on complex issues (e.g., debt, fragmentation, anticorruption, AML/CFT, climate change, and gender economics).
  - Since 2023, Fund staff proactively engaged with local, regional, and global CSOs on a quarterly basis—particularly helpful during development and adoption of the G20 Common Framework and the creation of the Global Sovereign Debt Roundtable.

### Civil Society Policy Forum (CSPF)
- The Civil Society Policy Forum (CSPF) convenes more than 800 CSO representatives from around the world to engage with Fund and World Bank staff, CSO peers, and government delegations during the Spring/Annual Meetings.
- Post-pandemic evolution of CSPF:
  - Adopted a hybrid format, enabling broader participation of CSOs, especially from developing and low-income countries previously unable to attend due to budget constraints and/or visa issues.
  - All sessions are recorded and uploaded to IMF.org.
  - Interpretation in different languages is provided to expand access.

### Purpose and mutual benefits of engagement
- IMF engagement with parliamentarians and CSOs aims to:
  - Increase transparency of the Fund’s work.
  - Build a foundation for an exchange of views.
  - Enable parliamentarians to advocate for sound policies domestically and provide valuable feedback and guidance to the Fund.
  - Bring diverse perspectives into Fund work, shaping policy areas and operational approaches.

*Source: Box 5. IMF Engagement with Parliamentarians and Civil Society (pp. 23–25) in the provided IMF document.*

### 7.      The Fund’s analytical work and policy recommendations generated policy dialogue.

### 7.      The Fund’s analytical work and policy recommendations generated policy dialogue.

### Flagships, analytical chapters, and public perception
- The Flagships are widely cited and discussed.
- The Analytical chapters demonstrate the Fund’s “evolving thinking.”
- Commentaries have dug into the Fund’s analytical work and debated its advice.
- The Fund’s contributions on areas such as climate, digitalization, inequality, and corruption brought the Fund’s work to new audiences.
- Overall impression: an evolving, forward-looking IMF.

### Media visibility
- Figure referenced: Figure 5. Media Mention Volume of IMF Flagships (Thousand).
- Source for media mention data: Trendkite and Meltwater.

### Criticism and geopolitical context
- There has been criticism of the Fund’s work.
- Geopolitical issues have led stakeholders to raise doubts about the future of the Fund.
- Reforms of multilateral institutions remain a priority.
- A recent issue raised involves sovereign debt and the ability of the Fund and the international community to offer expedited restructuring.
- Civil society organizations (CSOs) have criticized the gap between the Fund’s high-level policy advice and its on-ground programs.
- These criticisms are acknowledged as valid concerns that need to be addressed.

### Updating internal communications impact framework
- Gauging the impact of staff engagement will include:
  - (a) multi-channel analysis, i.e., tracking metrics across all internal channels;
  - (b) content analysis—that include monitoring uptake and identifying topics, formats and platforms that resonate; and
  - (c) gathering staff feedback through immediate polls during or after events.

*Italicized footnotes and citations in source text include items such as: 12–17, 18–19.*

---

### Appendix II. Assessing the Fund’s Reputational Impact: Global Stakeholder Survey Findings

### Survey scope and respondent profile
- Survey duration: Over six weeks.
- Number of participants: 8,896.
- Countries represented: 188.
- Share self-identifying as senior-level stakeholders: 45 percent.
- Source: IMF stakeholder survey findings 2024.
- Regional department acronyms noted: AFR, APD, EUR, MCD, WHD.

### Key summary findings
- Economic context (global level): Highest concerns in order were:
  - war/conflict,
  - climate change,
  - inflation,
  - economic inequality,
  - debt.
- Economic context (country level): Issues included:
  - inflation,
  - government effectiveness,
  - debt,
  - corruption (financial and political),
  - economic inequality.
- IMF’s global reputation: Trust
  - The IMF is one of the institutions most trusted to ‘do what is right’ — 63 percent positive — along with academia, research institutes, and central banks.
- IMF’s global reputation: Effectiveness
  - The IMF was identified as the most effective organization in the global economy — 74 percent effective — followed by:
    - World Bank — 70 percent,
    - central banks — 68 percent,
    - EU institutions — 67 percent.
- IMF’s position in a changing world
  - Nearly two-thirds of respondents considered the Fund:
    - relevant in a fragmenting world,
    - adaptive in its policy advice to the changing world,
    - fit for purpose in the face of today’s challenges.
- IMF engagement perceptions
  - Fund staff perceived as knowledgeable and informed.
  - The Fund viewed as transparent in handling of data and engaging stakeholders consultatively and respectfully.
  - Greater concern among respondents as to whether the Fund:
    - equally represents (and is influenced by) all 190 member countries,
    - is empathetic in its policies toward people,
    - is even-handed when dealing with countries.

### Effectiveness across specific areas
- Majorities believe the Fund’s efforts had a positive impact in:
  - the international monetary system,
  - financial stability issues,
  - pandemic-related emergency financing.
- Perceptions are less positive for the Fund’s impact on:
  - policies toward economic inequality,
  - crypto assets,
  - food security.
- Note: On crypto assets and food security, lower perceived impact may reflect lack of awareness of the Fund’s efforts.

### Convening power and stakeholder priorities
- Nearly nine out of ten respondents agree that in an increasingly fragmented world, the IMF needs to play an even greater role in bringing countries together on critical cross-border issues.
- Stakeholders welcome Fund involvement in areas such as:
  - jobs/employment,
  - climate,
  - gender,
  - AI.
- Over 75 percent of respondents would like the Fund more engaged in:
  - helping countries maintain financial stability,
  - strengthening governance frameworks in countries’ economic institutions,
  - working on public debt,
  - addressing economic inequality,
  - supporting economic growth.

### Media and communication preferences
- Stakeholders who follow the Fund obtain news primarily from:
  - print newspapers and their websites,
  - websites of multilateral institutions,
  - email newsletters,
  - websites/apps of digital-only news outlets.
- Preferred IMF sources for news/information:
  - IMF data,
  - information on IMF.org,
  - the Fund’s regular reports (flagships, REOs, Article IVs),
  - IMF email newsletters.

---

### Appendix III. Examples of Evidence-Based Communications

### Overview
- Digitalization of communications products and availability of real-time analytical tools enabled more nuanced, in-depth measuring of impact and real-time performance that informs messaging and outreach decisions.
- Integration of real-time measurement informs everyday communications actions, important amid resource constraints.

### 1. Increasing traffic to blogs, country focus articles, and IMF factsheets
- Data-based approach informed decisions on topics, words, length, tone, timing, format, editing style, and graphics.
- Accessibility and responsive design improvements for viewing across devices and optimizing text for search engines.
- These efforts are associated with significant growth in public engagement and may reflect rise in internet users, especially during the pandemic period.
- Note: The Blog regression analysis referenced confirms the importance of Fund communications efforts.

### 2. Improving discoverability of IMF Factsheets
- All 46 English-language Factsheets were translated into six languages.
- Resulted in 322 redesigned factsheets, organized to address frequently searched Fund-related questions on Google.
- Accessibility improvements included alt text for images, readable fonts, and screen reader friendly layouts.
- Outcomes in 2023 compared to 2021:
  - 23 percent increase in web traffic.
  - 42 percent increase in readership.
- Some languages recorded over a 50 percent increase in traffic through search engines.
- Figure referenced: Figure 2. IMF Factsheets Traffic Growth in 2023 Compared to 2021 (Percent).
- Sources for traffic data: Adobe Analytics; SEMrush.

### 3. Amplifying public engagement with F&D’s LOE content
- Before March 2022, only English F&D content was coded in HTML; LOE content was PDF-based.
- Migration of all F&D content to the main content management system enabled discoverability, sharing, and insights on user behavior.
- Monthly pageviews and downloads:
  - Before transition: around 319,000 combined monthly pageviews and downloads.
  - After transition: 554,000 monthly interactions.
- Online readership (“meaningful reads”) increased by 425 percent.
- Search engine traffic more than doubled; social platform traffic increased nearly fivefold.
- Geographic growth examples:
  - Tenfold growth in F&D traffic from Myanmar and Thailand.
  - Threefold increase from Egypt and Mexico.
  - Significant increases from small island states such as the Bahamas, Saint Martin, Bonaire and Guyana.
- Figure referenced: Figure 3. F&D Content: Web Traffic and Downloads (Thousand).
- Source: Adobe Analytics.

### 4. Calibrating editorial decisions for greater traction
- Practice of frontloading relevant keywords into headlines to enhance search engine visibility (example: inclusion of “global economy”).
- Example outcomes:
  - October 2023 WEO blog “Resilient Global Economy Still Limping Along, With Growing Divergences” achieved number-one Google position for “global economy,” leading to:
    - 100,000 pageviews,
    - more than 50,000 meaningful reads during 2023,
    - 80 percent of all traffic for the blog from search engines.
  - April 2023 WEO Chapter 2 blog “Interest Rates Likely to Return toward Pre-Pandemic Levels when Inflation Is Tamed” resulted in:
    - over 145,000 pageviews,
    - 21,000 meaningful reads.

### 5. Analytically based editorial decisions for the IMF Blog
- Regression analysis of IMF blogs for 2018–2023 reveals:
  - Preference for content on core macro topics such as fiscal and monetary policy.
  - Strong audience interest in blogs addressing global economic challenges.
  - Strategic inclusion of management bylines has enhanced credibility and reach.
- Figures referenced: Figure 4 (search result screenshot) and Figure 5. IMF Blog: Meaningful Reads and Visits.
- Topic analysis note: coefficients derived from percentage of relevant topical keywords within full text (continuous variable).
- Country group comparison note: coefficients compared relative to blogs focused on emerging economies (categorical variable).

### 6. Testing users’ reactions to IMF content (A/B testing)
- Since 2020, the Fund compared two versions of social media text/visuals to measure audience resonance (likes, shares, comments).
- Example tests during the pandemic: “Great Divergence” vs “Fair Shot,” animations vs videos for emergency financing messaging.
- Results informed headline messages for management and staff and broadened reach and traction of Fund messages.
- Figure referenced: Figure 6. A/B Testing: 3 Posts on Facebook and Twitter.
- Source for A/B testing visuals: Emplifi.

### 7. Leveraging data to discontinue products and inform content strategy
- During the pandemic, events shifted to virtual livestreams across platforms.
- Analytics showed lower viewership for livestreams on Facebook and Twitter compared with IMF.org, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
- Decision: discontinue livestreams on Facebook and Twitter and focus livestreamed events on IMFLive, YouTube, and LinkedIn.
- Social platform content redesigned for:
  - headline messages,
  - easily absorbed graphics,
  - shorter soundbite-style video clips,
  - striking, brand-reinforcing photos.
- Short-term result: more effective outreach and greater resource efficiency.

### 8. Innovating internal communication formats
- Shift to all-digital platforms broadened participation in internal events and diversified channels.
- Intranet engagement increased significantly.
- Email open rates for Fundalls (including the Weekly Roundup) are above 50 percent, compared with industry benchmark of 20-30 percent.
- New internal formats launched:
  - video series (2020) to strengthen belonging during work-from-home,
  - professionally produced talk shows (2021),
  - staff-generated content,
  - later experiments with blogs, podcasts, and event series focused on employee health and wellness, knowledge sharing and social interaction.
- Figures referenced: Figure 7. Surge in Intranet Unique Views; Figure 8. Internal Products and Performance.
- Sources: Adobe Analytics; IMF staff calculations.

*Italicized citations in source text include items such as Campaign Monitor and other referenced studies.*

*Source: ppea2024061 - 7.      The Fund’s analytical work and policy recommendations generated policy dialogue.*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/pp/2024/english/ppea2024061.pdf_