## _cr07109

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---

### Overview and key context
- PRSP published in September 2006; Joint Staff Advisory Note provides comments, implementation plans, and priorities for strengthening via annual progress reports (APRs).
- Builds on the Interim PRSP (I-PRSP) completed in November 2003 and discussed by the Boards of IDA and the IMF in January 2004.
- Human costs of conflict:
  - More than 250,000 people were killed and 1.2 million displaced.
  - Income per capita fell by 44 percent, from US$149 in 1994 to US$83 in 2004.
  - The prevalence of undernourishment reached 68 percent in 2002.
- Political milestones:
  - Comprehensive peace agreement signed in Arusha, Tanzania, in August 2000.
  - Transitional government established in 2002.
  - New constitution approved in February 2005.
  - Parliamentary elections in July 2005 and democratically elected government took office in August 2005.
  - Cease-fire accord with the last rebel movement, the FNL-PALIPEHUTU, in September 2006.
  - Burundi is one of the pilot countries for the UN Peace Building Commission.

### Strategic priorities (as stated in the PRSP)
- Improve governance and security.
- Achieve equitable and sustainable growth.
- Develop human capital by improving the quality of social services.
- Reinforce the fight against HIV/AIDS.
- Crosscutting: address gender with the aim to increase women’s participation in and contribution to Burundi’s socioeconomic development.

### Participation and poverty diagnostics
- Participatory process highlights:
  - PRSP prepared through a broad-based participatory process across all 17 provinces (146 communes) and sectors.
  - Led by the Permanent Secretariat for Monitoring Economic and Social Reforms with support from international partners and local NGOs; more than 145 grassroots civil society groups consulted.
  - Local support from Provincial Development and Poverty Reduction (CPDPL) and Communal Development and Poverty Reduction (CCDLP) Committees.
  - Consultations oriented toward establishing a monitoring and evaluation system based on the MDGs and Burundi’s Development Vision 2025.
  - Sector and thematic technical committees and parliamentary review contributed to formulation and feedback.
  - Consultations included the Batwa, the disabled, and other vulnerable groups.
  - Staff recommends using the same participatory and transparent process to monitor PRSP implementation.
- Poverty diagnosis and data limitations:
  - Depth and severity of poverty pose a major risk to recovery; social situation remains a grave concern.
  - Poverty analysis based on the 1998 CWIQ survey and MICS of 2002 and 2004.
  - Staff recommends using the results of the 2006 CWIQ survey to update the poverty profile; monitoring of poverty reduction should be based on the 2006 CWIQ survey.
- Rural–urban disparity (1998 data):
  - Overall poverty rate in 1998 was 81 percent—41 percent in Bujumbura and 83 percent in the rest of the country.
  - Average income of the rural poor estimated at FBu 65,014 or 49 percent below the poverty line.
  - Average income of the urban poor estimated at FBu 149,880, which is 17.9 percent lower than the poverty line.
  - Poverty rate by province: Bujumbura 41 percent; other provinces range from 72 percent in Bururi to about 90 percent in Kirundo, Kayanza, Gitega, and Ruyigi.
  - Poverty line: FBu 182,725 in Bujumbura; FBu 103,730 for the rest of the country.

### Macroeconomic and fiscal framework (2006–09)
- Staff supports the PRSP’s macroeconomic policies and objectives for 2006-09.
- Macroeconomic projections and targets:
  - Annual growth projected to be 6–7 percent, with a continuation of subdued inflation in the single digits.
  - Macroeconomic projections date from mid-2006; broadly comparable to updated staff projections except for fiscal revenue.
  - Staff believes continued fiscal revenue performance close to 20 percent of GDP is necessary and achievable.
- Data, statistical, and capacity constraints:
  - Projections subject to uncertainties due to post-conflict environment and poor statistics.
  - PRSP sets out a strategy for rehabilitating the national statistical base.
  - Burundi should participate in the IMF’s General Data Dissemination System.
  - Coordinated international support needed for resumption of national accounts production and other statistical improvements.
  - Strengthening capacity for economic analysis and policy implementation is needed.
- Budgeting and expenditure management:
  - PRSP priorities need reflection in a medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF); a MTEF is yet to be elaborated.
  - Public expenditure reviews should be conducted, starting with priority sectors.
  - Cost estimates of sector programs should be included in APRs and future PRSPs.
  - MTEF introduction should be gradual given weak institutional capacity and will require capacity strengthening and substantial external support.
  - Budget classifications adopted in 2005 made it possible to identify pro-poor expenditure, which the government is committed to increasing.
  - Government must better allocate expenditure, shore up public financial management, and carefully manage public expectations.
- Aid, absorptive capacity, and debt:
  - More grant aid, in line with the PRSP and subject to absorptive capacity, is needed to address social needs and progress toward the MDGs.
  - PRSP recognizes absorptive capacity as a constraint; improving institutional capacity is necessary to manage higher aid efficiently.
  - Balance between investment and recurrent spending will need monitoring; uncertainty and volatility of aid inflows must be managed.
  - Authorities need to strengthen capacity to analyze debt sustainability and better manage debt; future APRs and PRSPs should incorporate a debt sustainability analysis.
  - In light of vulnerability to debt distress, external assistance should be primarily grants.
  - Structural reform in coffee and tea sectors and export diversification are priorities.
  - Maintaining an adequate cushion of official reserves is important.
  - Future APRs and PRSPs could incorporate alternative macroeconomic scenarios with different levels of spending and external support.

### Strategic priorities: implementation notes and staff recommendations
- General recommendation:
  - Translate general priorities into precise measures, detailed action plans, sector programs, cost analyses, and trade-off assessments.
- Improving security and governance:
  - Progress: disarmament and demobilization programs nearing completion; cease-fire with last rebel group.
  - Priority actions: reintegration of excombatants, civilian disarmament, professionalizing defense and security forces.
  - Governance measures: strengthen rule of law, judicial system, public sector resource management; improve political, economic, administrative governance and anti-corruption activities; establish land dispute resolution.
  - Governance and anti-corruption strategy to be informed by the first Governance and Corruption Survey to be conducted in 2007 with World Bank Institute assistance.
  - Staff recommends adopting policies for sustainable utilization of natural resources, including the principles of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
  - Early measures: electronic publication of laws, decrees, and fiscal data; civil service reform; cautious decentralization aligned with strengthening local institutions.
- Achieving equitable and sustainable growth:
  - Growth strategy focused on rural sector and infrastructure (transport and energy), grounded in macroeconomic stability and private sector promotion.
  - Agriculture accounts for more than 80 percent of employment; sustained rural growth would reduce disparities and poverty.
  - Need for more discussion of sources of growth and specific measures to raise productivity in major cash crops such as coffee and tea.
  - Government intention to implement a participatory land occupancy policy favoring a greater role for women is supported.
  - Transport infrastructure priorities: build and renovate roads to connect all provinces with paved roads and expand rural roads network; require action plan prioritizing roads by economic return, poverty impact, and maintenance capacity.
  - Staff endorses necessity to:
    - integrate Burundi into a regional network of railroads;
    - expand the port of Bujumbura; and
    - make the airport of Bujumbura a transit center.
  - Feasibility of specific national and regional projects requires in-depth technical, economic, social and environmental studies.
  - Electricity shortfall identified as a major constraint; urgent actions include rehabilitation of existing power plants, construction of new ones, rural electrification by extending the grid and connecting villages, and disseminating information on alternative energy sources affordable for low-income households.
  - IDA is preparing a Multi-Sector Infrastructure Project.
- Regional integration:
  - Burundi admitted to the East African Community (EAC) in November 2006.
  - IDA preparing a Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (RCIP) with eight other development stakeholders.
  - Burundi ready to participate in COMESA free trade zone and to engage with trade preferences such as U.S. AGOA and the European Union.
  - Important to ensure overlapping commitments to different economic and trade zones are mutually consistent.

### Human capital development and social services
- Partnership and service delivery:
  - PRSP proposes human capital be developed in partnership with beneficiary communities and emphasizes incorporating content and feedback from final users to monitor success.
  - Tools recommended: public expenditure tracking surveys to identify issues and measure progress in delivering services to the poor.
  - Staff identifies insufficient data and communication as main obstacles to an efficient HIV/AIDS strategy and recommends prioritizing these issues.
- Education:
  - Staff supports expanding access and improving quality; government committed to increase expenditures on social sectors for education and health.
  - Education outcomes: since the “free school” policy introduced in September 2005, primary education coverage improved from 80 percent in 2003-04 to about 100 percent in 2005-06.
  - IDA preparing an education project to support initiatives.
- Health and HIV/AIDS:
  - Health policy objectives: reduce child and maternal mortality rates and improve access to, and the quality of, basic health services.
  - A 2006 presidential decree eliminated fees for health care services for children under 5 and pregnant women.
  - For HIV/AIDS, prevention and mitigation should be part of a comprehensive multisector program; medium-term actions include defining a new strategy for medicine distribution and new financing mechanisms.
- Vulnerable groups and conflict victims:
  - PRSP envisages actions for refugees and the displaced, homeless children, orphans, and the handicapped.
  - Staff recommends increased cooperation with NGOs and local communities to address needs cost-effectively and attain long lasting progress.

### Implementation, monitoring, evaluation, and public financial management
- Monitoring and institutional roles:
  - PRSP calls for participatory monitoring and evaluation; details of participation should be spelled out clearly.
  - Monitoring responsibilities assigned to line ministries and agencies: Ministries of Finance and Planning, the National Committee for Aid Coordination, and the National Institute of Statistics, in partnership with donors.
  - PRSP describes ten layers of organization from the office of the second Vice President to the Technical Oversight Committee and local committees; staff cautions against an overly cumbersome structure that could delay progress.
  - Modalities of implementation and roles of NGOs and civil society are yet to be determined; implementation, monitoring and evaluation plans are yet to be defined in detail.
  - Staff recommendation: adopt implementation mechanisms that spell out the details of participatory monitoring.
- Public financial management reforms:
  - Planned reforms aim to better track poverty-reducing spending and monitor PRSP objectives.
  - Government needs to:
    - develop efficient reporting mechanisms and accounting procedures;
    - implement a monthly cash-flow plan;
    - introduce internal and external audit procedures to track expenditure at each stage of the expenditure cycle.
  - Efforts underway with support of IDA and the IMF.
- Indicators, statistics, and action planning:
  - Choice of progress indicators will be essential for evaluating implementation.
  - Observation: progress indicators in Annex 1 of the PRSP are generally measurable but need streamlining and alignment with main priority actions.
  - Staff recommends prioritizing work to establish monitoring and evaluation indicators and progress on rehabilitation of national statistics.
  - Staff calls for an action plan that sets out priority actions with costing, timing, and performance indicators and specifies the entity in charge.

### Conclusion, challenges, and discussion points
- Staff commends the government for its PRSP as a sound start in the aftermath of protracted civil conflict that damaged institutional and implementation capacity.
- Staff concurs with poverty reduction priorities and the emphasis on growth as the basis for poverty reduction but stresses that successful implementation requires further definition of priorities in terms of resource constraints and formulation of sector action plans and evidence-based targets.
- Identified serious challenges and risks to successful implementation:
  - (i) consolidating political stability in an open and democratic environment;
  - (ii) further improving security and governance to create an environment conducive to private sector investment;
  - (iii) mobilizing the external financing required to achieve the social and poverty reduction targets;
  - (iv) improving capacity to effectively coordinate donor assistance; and
  - (v) strengthening local capacity in line with priorities and available financing.
- Question for discussion: Do the Executive Directors concur with the staff’s evaluation and identification of priority actions and recommendations?

*Source: IMF staff report excerpt.*

### 1.      The Government of Burundi published its first Poverty Reduction Strategy

### The Government of Burundi published its first Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP)

### Overview and key context
- The PRSP was published in September 2006. This Joint Staff Advisory Note provides comments and advice on the PRSP, plans for its implementation, and priorities for strengthening it, including through annual progress reports (APRs).
- The PRSP builds on the Interim PRSP (I-PRSP) completed in November 2003 and discussed by the Boards of IDA and the IMF in January 2004.
- Context and human costs of conflict:
  - It is estimated that more than 250,000 people were killed and 1.2 million displaced.
  - Income per capita fell by 44 percent, from US$149 in 1994 to US$83 in 2004.
  - The prevalence of undernourishment reached 68 percent in 2002.
- Political milestones:
  - Comprehensive peace agreement signed in Arusha, Tanzania, in August 2000.
  - Transitional government established in 2002.
  - New constitution approved in February 2005.
  - Parliamentary elections in July 2005 and democratically elected government took office in August 2005.
  - Cease-fire accord with the last rebel movement, the FNL-PALIPEHUTU, in September 2006.
  - Burundi is one of the pilot countries for the UN Peace Building Commission.

### Strategic priorities (as stated in the PRSP)
- Improve governance and security;
- Achieve equitable and sustainable growth;
- Develop human capital by improving the quality of social services; and
- Reinforce the fight against HIV/AIDS.
- Crosscutting: address gender with the aim to increase women’s participation in and contribution to Burundi’s socioeconomic development.

### Participation and poverty diagnostics
- Participatory process:
  - PRSP prepared through a broad-based participatory process across all 17 provinces (146 communes) and sectors.
  - Led by the Permanent Secretariat for Monitoring Economic and Social Reforms with support from international partners and local NGOs.
  - Quantitative and qualitative surveys undertaken in all provinces; more than 145 grassroots civil society groups consulted.
  - Local support by Provincial Development and Poverty Reduction (CPDPL) and Communal Development and Poverty Reduction (CCDLP) Committees.
  - Consultations oriented toward establishing a monitoring and evaluation system based on the MDGs and Burundi’s Development Vision 2025.
  - Sector and thematic technical committees established to formulate policy implementation and development objectives and to help develop a coherent macroeconomic framework and priority budget actions.
  - Parliament reviewed local proposals and sectoral consultation results and provided feedback on implementation.
  - Consultations included the Batwa, the disabled, and other vulnerable groups.
  - Staff recommends using the same participatory and transparent process to monitor PRSP implementation, as called for by community organizations, civil society, NGOs, the private sector, and development partners.
- Poverty diagnosis and data limitations:
  - Depth and severity of poverty pose a major risk to recovery; social situation remains a grave concern.
  - Poverty analysis is based on the 1998 CWIQ survey and MICS of 2002 and 2004.
  - Staff recommends using the results of the 2006 CWIQ survey to update the poverty profile; monitoring of poverty reduction should be based on the 2006 CWIQ survey.
  - Rural–urban disparity (1998 data):
    - Overall poverty rate in 1998 was 81 percent—41 percent in Bujumbura and 83 percent in the rest of the country.
    - Average income of the rural poor estimated at FBu 65,014 or 49 percent below the poverty line.
    - Average income of the urban poor estimated at FBu 149,880, which is 17.9 percent lower than the poverty line.
    - Poverty rate by province: Bujumbura 41 percent; other provinces range from 72 percent in Bururi to about 90 percent in Kirundo, Kayanza, Gitega, and Ruyigi.
    - Poverty line: FBu 182,725 in Bujumbura; FBu 103,730 for the rest of the country.

### Macroeconomic and fiscal framework (2006–09)
- Staff supports the PRSP’s macroeconomic policies and objectives for 2006-09.
- Macroeconomic projections and targets:
  - Annual growth projected to be 6–7 percent, with a continuation of subdued inflation in the single digits.
  - Macroeconomic projections date from mid-2006; broadly comparable to updated staff projections except for fiscal revenue.
  - Staff believes continued fiscal revenue performance close to 20 percent of GDP is necessary and achievable.
- Data, statistical, and capacity constraints:
  - Macroeconomic projections are subject to uncertainties due to post-conflict environment and poor statistics.
  - PRSP sets out a strategy for rehabilitating the national statistical base.
  - It is important for Burundi to participate in the IMF’s General Data Dissemination System.
  - Coordinated international support needed for resumption of national accounts production and other statistical improvements.
  - Strengthening capacity for economic analysis and policy implementation is needed.
- Budgeting and expenditure management:
  - PRSP priorities need reflection in a medium-term expenditure framework (MTEF) and annual budgetary priorities; a MTEF is yet to be elaborated.
  - Public expenditure reviews should be conducted, starting with priority sectors.
  - Cost estimates of sector programs should be included in APRs and future PRSPs.
  - Given weak institutional capacity, MTEF introduction should be gradual and will require capacity strengthening of line ministries and substantial external support.
  - Budget classifications adopted in 2005 made it possible to identify pro-poor expenditure, which the government is committed to increasing.
  - Government must better allocate expenditure and shore up public financial management and carefully manage public expectations.
- Aid, absorptive capacity, and debt:
  - More grant aid, in line with the PRSP and subject to absorptive capacity, is needed to address social needs and progress toward the MDGs.
  - The PRSP recognizes absorptive capacity as a constraint; improving institutional capacity is necessary to manage higher aid efficiently.
  - The balance between investment and recurrent spending will need monitoring; uncertainty and volatility of aid inflows must be managed.
  - PRSP describes external debt and policies; authorities need to strengthen capacity to analyze debt sustainability and better manage debt.
  - Future APRs and PRSPs should incorporate a debt sustainability analysis.
  - In light of vulnerability to debt distress, external assistance should be primarily grants.
  - Structural reform in coffee and tea sectors and export diversification are priorities.
  - Maintaining an adequate cushion of official reserves is important.
  - Future APRs and PRSPs could incorporate alternative macroeconomic scenarios with different levels of spending and external support.

### Strategic priorities: implementation notes and staff recommendations
- General:
  - Staff supports the analyses and broad priorities but recommends translating general priorities into precise measures, detailed action plans, sector programs, cost analyses, and trade-off assessments.
- Improving security and governance:
  - Progress noted: disarmament and demobilization programs nearing completion; cease-fire with last rebel group.
  - Priority actions: reintegration of excombatants, civilian disarmament, professionalizing defense and security forces.
  - Governance measures: strengthen rule of law, judicial system, and public sector resource management; improve political, economic, administrative governance and anti-corruption activities; establish land dispute resolution.
  - Governance and anti-corruption strategy to be informed by the first Governance and Corruption Survey to be conducted in 2007 with World Bank Institute assistance.
  - Staff recommends adopting policies for sustainable utilization of natural resources, including the principles of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative.
  - Early measures suggested: electronic publication of laws, decrees, and fiscal data; civil service reform; cautious decentralization aligned with strengthening local institutions.
- Achieving equitable and sustainable growth:
  - Growth strategy appropriately focused on rural sector and infrastructure (transport and energy), grounded in macroeconomic stability and private sector promotion.
  - Agriculture accounts for more than 80 percent of employment; sustained rural growth would reduce disparities and poverty.
  - Staff notes need for more discussion of sources of growth and specific measures to raise productivity in major cash crops such as coffee and tea.
  - Government intention to implement a participatory land occupancy policy favoring a greater role for women is supported.
  - Transport infrastructure priorities include building and renovating roads to connect all provinces with paved roads and expand rural roads network; need for action plan prioritizing roads by economic return, poverty impact, and capacity to maintain them.
  - Staff endorses necessity to:
    - integrate Burundi into a regional network of railroads;
    - expand the port of Bujumbura; and
    - make the airport of Bujumbura a transit center.
  - Feasibility of specific national and regional projects requires in-depth technical, economic, social and environmental studies.
  - Electricity shortfall identified as a major constraint; staff concurs with urgent actions including rehabilitation of existing power plants, construction of new ones, rural electrification by extending the grid and connecting villages, and disseminating information on alternative energy sources affordable for low-income households.
  - IDA is preparing a Multi-Sector Infrastructure Project.
  - Regional integration:
    - Burundi admitted to the East African Community (EAC) in November 2006.
    - IDA preparing a Regional Communications Infrastructure Program (RCIP) with eight other development stakeholders.
    - Burundi ready to participate in COMESA free trade zone and to engage with trade preferences such as U.S. AGOA and the European Union.
    - Important to ensure overlapping commitments to different economic and trade zones are mutually consistent.
- Developing human capital, improving social services, and fighting HIV/AIDS:
  - Developing human capital by improving the quality of social services and reinforcing the fight against HIV/AIDS are named strategic priorities in the PRSP.
  - The PRSP emphasizes gender mainstreaming to increase women’s participation and access to productive activities and basic services at macro and sectoral levels.
  - The PRSP recognizes the need to strengthen institutional capacity to implement socioeconomic policies and reforms; effectiveness of local community actions depends on capacity to manage growth and poverty reduction programs.

*Joint Staff Advisory Note on Burundi’s PRSP (September 2006) — IMF Country Report content provided in the source document*

### 26.      The PRSP proposes that human capital be developed in partnership with

### _cr07109 - 26.      The PRSP proposes that human capital be developed in partnership with

### Human capital development and social services
- The PRSP proposes that human capital be developed in partnership with beneficiary communities and emphasizes incorporating content and feedback from final users to monitor success.
- Tools recommended to identify issues and measure progress in delivering services to the poor: public expenditure tracking surveys.
- Staff identifies insufficient data and communication as the main obstacles to setting up an efficient strategy for the fight against HIV/AIDS and recommends making these issues a priority.
- Staff supports expanding access to social services and improving quality and commends the government’s commitment to increase expenditures on social sectors for rising demands in education and health, notably for construction of schools and classrooms and giving the poor greater access to affordable health care.
- Education outcomes cited:
  - Since the “free school” policy was introduced in September 2005, primary education coverage improved from 80 percent in 2003-04 to about 100 percent in 2005-06.
  - To support initiatives, an education project is under preparation by IDA.
- Health policy objectives:
  - Main objective: reduce child and maternal mortality rates and improve access to, and the quality of, basic health services.
  - A 2006 presidential decree eliminated fees for health care services for children under 5 and pregnant women.
  - For HIV/AIDS, prevention and mitigation should be part of a comprehensive and coherent multisector program; in the medium term the government should define a new strategy for the distribution of medicines and new financing mechanisms for the sector.
- PRSP envisages actions for victims of civil conflict (refugees and the displaced, homeless children, orphans, and the handicapped); staff recommends increased cooperation with NGOs and local communities to address needs cost-effectively and attain long lasting progress.

### Implementation, monitoring, and evaluation structure
- The PRSP calls for participatory monitoring and evaluation and urges that the details of participation be spelled out clearly; the government intends to introduce such a mechanism.
- Monitoring responsibilities assigned to line ministries and agencies implementing the PRSP: Ministries of Finance and Planning, the National Committee for Aid Coordination, and the National Institute of Statistics, in close partnership with other donors.
- The PRSP describes the role of ten layers of organization, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation, from the office of the second Vice President in charge of economic and social reforms to the Technical Oversight Committee and the local committees.
- Staff caution: while the multilayer structure aims for a fully participatory, comprehensive, and consistent approach, care should be taken to ensure that the process is not so cumbersome as to delay progress.
- Modalities of implementation and the roles of NGOs and civil society are yet to be determined; implementation, monitoring and evaluation plans for the PRSP are yet to be defined in detail.
- Staff recommendation: adopt implementation mechanisms that spell out the details of participatory monitoring.

### Public financial management reforms
- Planned reforms aim to better track poverty-reducing spending and monitor progress on the PRSP’s objectives.
- Government needs to:
  - develop efficient reporting mechanisms and accounting procedures;
  - implement a monthly cash-flow plan;
  - introduce internal and external audit procedures to track expenditure at each stage of the expenditure cycle.
- Efforts in this area are already underway with the support of IDA and the IMF.

### Indicators, statistics, and action planning
- Choice of progress indicators will be essential for evaluating implementation.
- Observation on indicators: progress indicators proposed in Annex 1 of the PRSP are generally measurable but need to be streamlined and aligned with the main priority actions.
- Staff recommends prioritizing the work underway to establish monitoring and evaluation indicators and accompanying progress on the rehabilitation of national statistics.
- Staff calls for an action plan that sets out priority actions with costing, timing, and performance indicators and specifies the entity in charge; such a plan is of paramount importance to serve as a reference for planning, monitoring and evaluation, and to facilitate prioritization of capacity reinforcement programs.

### Conclusion and points for discussion
- Government is commended for making a sound start with the poverty reduction strategy elucidated in its first PRSP, an impressive achievement in the immediate aftermath of a protracted civil conflict that severely damaged the country’s institutional and implementation capacity.
- Staff concurs with poverty reduction priorities and the emphasis on growth as the basis for poverty reduction but stresses that successful implementation requires that priorities be further defined in terms of resource constraints and that sector action plans and evidence-based targets be formulated.
- Identified serious challenges and risks to successful implementation of the PRSP include:
  - (i) consolidating political stability in an open and democratic environment;
  - (ii) further improving security and governance to create an environment conducive to private sector investment;
  - (iii) mobilizing the external financing required to achieve the social and poverty reduction targets;
  - (iv) improving capacity to effectively coordinate donor assistance; and
  - (v) strengthening local capacity in line with priorities and available financing.
- Question posed for discussion: Do the Executive Directors concur with the staff’s evaluation and identification of priority actions and recommendations?

*Source: IMF staff report excerpt.*

---


_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/websites/imf/imported-full-text-pdf/external/pubs/ft/scr/2007/_cr07109.pdf_