Fragile and Conflict-Affected States (FCS) Strategy Consultation
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Overview and purpose
- The International Monetary Fund is preparing a Strategy to strengthen its engagement with fragile and conflict-affected states (FCS).
- The Strategy aims to further articulate the IMF’s role in helping countries to exit from fragility and to identify and propose specific measures to enhance the impact of the Fund’s engagement over the next three years.
- The Strategy is expected to strengthen the IMF’s ability to support FCS in correcting balance of payments, promoting macroeconomic stability, and building institutions to deliver good policies for sustainable and inclusive economic growth.
- The Strategy seeks to complement efforts by other actors and organizations supporting FCS, focusing on the IMF’s comparative advantage.
- The FCS Strategy will be submitted for consideration and approval to the IMF’s Executive Board in December 2021.
Draft Concept Note and consultation questions
- The draft Concept Note outlines the rationale, vision, objectives, and initial proposals under consideration.
- Key consultation questions included:
- What are your views on the envisaged IMF FCS Strategy?
- Which specific areas do you see for the IMF to further enhance its effectiveness to support FCS in achieving macroeconomic stability to help them exit from fragility?
- Given the mandates, core competencies, and comparative advantages of various actors and organizations involved in FCS, what are the main topics, areas, and modes of cooperation you foresee?
Consultation process and participation
- External consultations took place from 30 July to 30 September 2021.
- The IMF received feedback from over 55 organizations including the World Bank, regional development banks, the United Nations system, civil society organizations (CSOs), think tanks, and academia.
- More details on feedback received by CSOs and other partners are reported in Annex 1 in the IMF FCS Strategy.
Key aspects of CSO feedback on the FCS Strategy Concept Note
- Overall reception:
- CSOs welcomed the IMF’s efforts to enhance its work on Fragile and Conflict-Affected States and recognized the Fund’s willingness to scale up engagement while acknowledging limitations due to the Fund’s mandate.
- Build on lessons learned:
- CSOs emphasized building on lessons learned of past FCS engagement—including successes and shortcomings—to strengthen comprehensive knowledge of past challenges.
- Tailoring engagement to fragility and conflict contexts:
- CSOs stressed the need for sufficient tailoring in Fund engagements to reflect the broader spectrum of challenges FCS face and to address root causes of fragility and conflict, including governance and corruption, inequality, climate change, and inclusion, particularly of youth and women.
- Some comments mentioned that analysis of drivers of fragility should be incorporated when adapting the institutions financial toolkit and programs through country specific conditionalities and benchmarks.
- Increase IMF footprint in FCS:
- The majority of CSOs highlighted that the IMF presence in FCS countries is inadequate and called for the IMF to incentivize sufficiently qualified staff and local experts to be on the ground.
- Strengthen partnership and coordination:
- CSOs emphasized the need for partnership and coordination with UN and donor agencies, the private sector, and CSOs operating in the field to avoid working in siloes and to benefit from shared expertise and knowledge.
- Political economy sensitivity:
- CSOs wanted more IMF sensitivity to the risk of authorities perpetuating underlying fragilities and to the implications of IMF engagement in FCS within volatile political economies.
- Increase context-specific flexibility:
- CSOs emphasized that the heterogeneous nature of FCS requires flexibility and agility in IMF engagement to address immediate and short-term needs while being embedded in a long-term approach.
- Invest in rebuilding the social contract:
- CSOs stressed the critical role they can play in rebuilding trust, confidence, and partnerships with local communities, for example when reestablishing Fund engagement particularly when countries emerge from conflict.
- Strengthen efforts on conflict-prevention:
- Several CSOs suggested that the IMF should adopt conflict prevention policies to address key drivers of fragility that can risk tipping a country into conflict.
- Enhance conflict-sensitivity:
- CSOs raised the challenges the Fund can face in navigating political dynamics in FCS and recommended working with counterparts beyond technical teams, including government and non-government agencies.
- For example, capacity development efforts in post-conflict situations may need to reflect the level of volatility in their monitoring and evaluation approaches.
Content in this bundle
- Fcs Strategy Consultations Concept Note