## PROGRESS REPORT TO THE INTERNATIONAL MONETARY AND FINANCIAL COMMITTEE ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE INDEPENDENT EVALUATION OFFICE OF THE IMF

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### Purpose and scope of the report
- Presents key conclusions and recommendations from the recently completed IEO assessment of self-evaluation at the IMF, as well as the status of ongoing work in the IEO.
- Date of report: October 2, 2015.

### Rationale for assessing self-evaluation
- The IEO assessed IMF self-evaluation to learn from experience, improve the quality and effectiveness of IMF work, and enhance transparency.
- Self-evaluation, alongside independent evaluation, contributes to governance and organizational effectiveness by fostering learning and establishing a framework for accountability.
- Self-evaluation enhances transparency about IMF decisions and effectiveness and can contribute to IMF legitimacy.

### Main findings from the IEO assessment of self-evaluation
- Considerable self-evaluation takes place at the IMF.
- Many IMF self-evaluation activities and reports were of high technical quality.
- Self-evaluation informed reforms in policies and operations.
- Gaps and weaknesses identified:
  - Gaps in coverage of self-evaluation activities.
  - Some weaknesses in the quality of self-evaluation.
  - Shortcomings in distilling and disseminating lessons.
  - Absence of an explicit, conscious, institution-wide approach to self-evaluation.
- Additional concern:
  - Recent decisions taken as part of a cost saving exercise risk further weakening the self-evaluation framework.

### Key recommendations from the IEO assessment
- Adopt an overall policy for self-evaluation that:
  - Is general enough to allow practices to evolve with the operational environment.
  - Sets out goals, scope, key outputs, and expectations for utilization and follow-up.
- Require that reviews of policy and institution-wide issues:
  - Specify what the IMF is trying to achieve by introducing or revising policies and operational practices.
  - Articulate how the institution will know whether it has been successful.
- Ensure that all lending programs undergo some form of self-assessment to:
  - Provide a platform for learning from experience.
  - Enhance transparency on the use of Fund resources.
- IMF Management should develop products and activities aimed at:
  - Distilling and disseminating evaluative findings and lessons.
  - Highlighting their relevance for staff work and facilitating learning.

### Executive Board reaction
- The Executive Board discussed the evaluation on September 18 and:
  - Welcomed this first assessment of self-evaluation at the IMF.
  - Broadly endorsed the thrust of the report and its recommendations.
  - Supported strengthening the institutional framework for self-evaluation, adapting it over time to changing circumstances, and better disseminating lessons from self-evaluation.

### Ongoing IEO evaluations (status as of report)
- Evaluation of data and statistics at the IMF:
  - Examines whether the broad spectrum of the institution’s data activities—including data provision (and associated measures to improve quality and availability), management, dissemination, policies, and use—are adequate for fulfilling the IMF’s mandate, particularly for surveillance and lending, amidst a rapidly evolving global economy.
- Evaluation of the IMF and the euro area:
  - Follows on the IEO evaluation “IMF Response to the Financial and Economic Crisis” (completed October 2014).
  - Focuses on the IMF’s role during the banking and sovereign debt crises of Greece, Ireland, and Portugal.
  - Also examines IMF surveillance and technical assistance in these and other euro area countries and institutions where they are relevant to the IMF’s crisis-management role.

*Source: Progress report to the IMFC on the activities of the Independent Evaluation Office of the IMF, October 2, 2015.*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/websites/imf/imported-full-text-pdf/external/np/pp/eng/2015/_100215.pdf_