## The Chairman’s Summing Up — Independent Evaluation Office Report on Recurring Issues from a Decade of Evaluation—Lessons for the IMF

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### Board reaction and overall assessment
- Executive Directors welcomed the IEO report and the Managing Director’s statement.
- Directors were encouraged by the finding that actions have been taken to address major recurring issues from past IEO evaluations.
- Directors agreed that the issues identified are likely to pose ongoing challenges as they are to varying degrees intrinsic to the culture, policies, and governance arrangements of the IMF.
- Directors emphasized that efforts to address these issues should continue and looked forward to the 2014 Triennial Surveillance Review as an opportunity for further progress on this front.
- EMBARGOED UNTIL TUESDAY, JULY 1 AT 10:00 AM WASHINGTON TIME (1400 GMT)

### Board oversight, guidance, and practices
- Directors acknowledged instances where the Board has fallen short of providing clear guidance and robust oversight.
- Merit seen in increasing the Board’s involvement in:
  - laying out strategic priorities, and
  - monitoring their implementation.
- Directors recognized recent actions to improve the Board’s effectiveness but saw room to further improve Board practices to sharpen the focus of discussions.
- Greater candor in staff reports was identified as a way to strengthen the Board’s ability to set strategic directions.
- The forthcoming Board retreat was noted as an appropriate setting to reflect further on these issues.

### Organizational coordination and surveillance coherence
- Directors welcomed significant steps by management to break down organizational silos and strengthen coordination across departments and synergies across work streams.
- Further efforts needed to promote interdepartmental cooperation in support of integrated surveillance, specifically:
  - improving coherence of different multilateral surveillance products,
  - enhancing complementarities between multilateral and bilateral surveillance, and
  - enhancing the consistency of country reports.

### Risk analysis and program design
- Directors welcomed the increased focus on risks and uncertainty in surveillance and program design.
- Calls for further improvements in:
  - analysis of risks,
  - analysis of transmission channels, and
  - specification of policy responses, particularly within risk assessment matrices.
- Effective engagement with country authorities was identified as important for improved risk analysis.

### Country specificity, continuity, and staff diversity
- Directors agreed staff could pay closer attention to country-specificity and institutional context, building on recent progress.
- Benefits of enriching policy advice by:
  - considering alternative options, and
  - assessing their feasibility.
- Calls for continued efforts to ensure continuity in country teams, particularly for small and fragile states, and for greater staff diversity.

### Evenhandedness, transparency, and governance reform
- Directors noted that perception of a lack of evenhandedness remains a concern across the membership, especially in emerging and smaller countries.
- This concern could be addressed through:
  - greater transparency,
  - greater inclusiveness, and
  - progress on governance reform.

### Specific IEO recommendations for Board consideration
- Directors supported the recommendation to prepare a similar report on recurrent issues from IEO evaluations every five years.
- Most Directors supported the recommendation that staff prepare a separate high-level report on the status of initiatives that address the recurring issues identified by the IEO, with:
  - the first staff report to be prepared within two years, followed by similar reports every five years thereafter.
- A number of Directors saw limited merit in this proposal because of resource implications and mechanisms already in place to keep the Board informed on progress.

### Next steps
- In line with established practices, management and staff will give careful consideration to the Board discussion in formulating the implementation plan, including approaches to monitor progress.

*From: The Chairman’s Summing Up — Independent Evaluation Office Report on Recurring Issues from a Decade of Evaluation—Lessons for the IMF; Executive Board Meeting 14/53; June 11, 2014.*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/websites/imf/imported-full-text-pdf/external/np/pp/eng/2014/_061114b.pdf_