## A PROPOSED STRATEGY FOR MAINSTREAMING GENDER AT THE IMF — CONSULTATION CONCEPT NOTE

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**Canonical URL:** [A PROPOSED STRATEGY FOR MAINSTREAMING GENDER AT THE IMF — CONSULTATION CONCEPT NOTE](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/topics/gender/gender-strategy-consultation-note-021022.pdf)

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### Consultation scope and questions
- Consultation period: February 10 – March 2, 2022.
- Key consultation questions for external partners and stakeholders:
  - Do you agree with the proposed vision for mainstreaming gender at the IMF?
  - Given the mandates, core competencies, and comparative advantages of other organizations working on gender issues, what are your views on where the IMF can make the most impactful contribution?
  - What factors are important for the IMF to consider when identifying countries for targeted advice and capacity development support?

### Positioning the Fund
- Foundational premise:
  - The Fund’s Articles of Agreement provide the basis for integrating gender work in the Fund’s core activities.
  - The strategy aims to mainstream gender into surveillance, lending, and capacity development, focused on macroeconomic and financial policy and analysis.
  - Many gender disparities are macro-critical because narrowing them can raise economic growth and enhance macro-financial stability.
- Channels and impacts:
  - Drivers of gender disparities include unequal access to education and health services, unequal legal rights, violence against women, and cultural barriers.
  - Consequences include limited access to financial services, low labor force participation rates, low wages, and low representation in leadership positions.
  - Reducing gender disparities can:
    - promote labor force participation,
    - raise productivity,
    - reduce income inequality,
    - increase economic diversification,
    - improve political stability,
    - contribute to economic growth and macroeconomic resilience.
  - Female leadership and diversity on boards of financial institutions and banking supervision agencies are associated with lower non-performing loans and greater financial stability.
  - Female political leadership is associated with greater infrastructure spending and educational attainment of girls.
- Historical engagement and past work:
  - Gender-related topics covered since a pilot approach was adopted in 2015.
  - During 2015-19, gender-focused analyses appeared in staff reports for 43 countries.
  - A presentation to the Board occurred in 2017.
  - A 2018 how-to note for staff was produced.
  - The Fund's Financial Access Survey (FAS) began to collect gender-disaggregated data.
  - Capacity development on gender budgeting began recently through workshops, technical assistance and outreach.

### The vision
- Proposed vision: help members to address macro-critical gender gaps.
- Three guiding principles:
  - Adhere to the IMF mandate by focusing on closing gender gaps associated with negative macroeconomic outcomes.
  - Provide thought leadership globally and granular and tailored macroeconomic and financial policy advice to member countries.
  - Maximize impact on the ground by building member countries' capacity, partnering with other institutions, and engaging externally.
- Role across core activities:
  - Surveillance: ensure consistent treatment of members based on degree of macro-criticality and integrate granular advice into core policy discussions.
  - Lending: use conditionality in Fund-supported programs when narrowing gender gaps is critical to program goals.
  - Capacity development: support members’ implementation of IMF policy advice in surveillance and program design and conditionality.
- Implementation caveat:
  - The vision is long-term and will be gradually implemented given resource constraints and the need to develop staff expertise.

### Key elements of the proposed strategy
- Identified gaps to close:
  - Analytical frameworks.
  - Internal governance/organizational structure.
  - Resources.
- Analytical and data improvements:
  - Develop model-based toolkits that incorporate micro- and macroeconomic features, heterogeneous agents, and different sectors.
  - Analyze impacts on labor force participation, wage disparities, government finances, economic growth, income inequality, and poverty.
  - Recognize no single model fits all countries; develop several models to capture heterogeneity.
  - Create a user-friendly toolkit to empower country teams and ensure consistent gender-sensitive analysis.
- Internal data hub:
  - Curate macro-relevant gender-related indicators across countries to support analytical and policy tools.
- Cross-cutting synergies:
  - Explore links among climate change, digital money, fragile and conflict-affected states, and gender and inclusion.
  - Consider mitigation and adaptation policies in gender-responsive contexts.
  - Investigate policies to ensure fintech narrows gender gaps.
  - Target female labor force participation in fragile and conflict-affected states to rebuild resilience.
- Governance and organizational arrangements:
  - Clearly assign responsibilities and accountability.
  - Emphasize macro-criticality and evenhandedness in the Fund’s approach.
  - Establish internal procedures, technical-level working groups, and peer learning mechanisms.
- Resource strategy and phased scale-up:
  - Leverage limited dedicated resources by centralizing in a dedicated unit to achieve scale economies.
  - Initial country coverage will be narrow and selective; some deeper studies will serve as mainstreaming prototypes.
  - Over time, expand country coverage as tools and models are developed and country economists gain access to toolkits.
- Capacity building and staff readiness:
  - Fund staff will require training to identify gender disparities, determine macro-criticality, and ensure consistency.
  - Building, experimenting with, and refining models and tools will take time; successes and failures will be acknowledged.

### Next steps and implementation phases
- Phased implementation:
  - Phase 1:
    - Close data and analytical gaps.
    - Provide country-specific assessment of gender gaps and their macro-criticality.
    - Strengthen the internal governance framework.
    - Build the centralized data-hub.
    - Begin development of analytical tools.
  - Phase 2:
    - Increase support to country teams by the centralized unit.
    - Enable more in-depth analysis and policy advice.
    - Increase capacity development to member countries.
  - Phase 3:
    - Increase country coverage.
    - Mainstream gender across the Fund’s core activities.
- Decision and timeline:
  - Feedback from the informal IMF Board meeting on February 9, 2022 and external stakeholders will be incorporated.
  - Staff will present the gender strategy proposal at a formal Board meeting in Spring 2022.
  - Once endorsed by the Board, staff will begin tasks laid out in the approved strategy.

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/topics/gender/gender-strategy-consultation-note-021022.pdf_