IMF Conference

Day 1, Thursday February 14

8:00 – 8:30

Registration

8:30 – 9:00

Opening Session

8:30

Welcome

Dominique Desruelle, Deputy Director, African Department, IMF

8:35

Opening Remarks

Stefano Dejak, Ambassador of the European Union to the Republic of Kenya

8:40

Keynote Address

Henry K. Rotich, Cabinet Secretary, National Treasury, Kenya

9:00 – 9:15

Group Photo

9:15 – 10:30

Overview Presentations 

9:15

Current Conditions, Fiscal Trends, and Challenges in Financing the Development Agenda (Eng - Fre)

Abebe Selassie, Director, African Department, IMF

9:45

Public Finance and Development (Eng - Fre)

Vitor Gaspar, Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF

10:15

Questions and Answers

Fiscal transparency is critical for effective fiscal management and accountability. It is also an area where Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has significant room to improve. For some countries, this means consolidating and providing information on the main components of fiscal operations. For more advanced economies, balance sheet compilation and risk analysis should be on the agenda. The session will highlight international good practices in this area and take stock of progress towards fiscal transparency and risk management in SSA, including work on fiscal transparency evaluations, debt management, and disclosure and mitigation of key fiscal risks.

Main Speakers:

Sailendra Narayan Pattanayak, Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF (Eng - Fre)

Bryn Battersby, AFRITAC East (Eng - Fre)

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Meeting the SDGs will require a major step up in spending, much of it on infrastructure, health, and education. This session will present estimates of overall spending needs and discuss financing challenges.

Chair: Vitor Gaspar, Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF

Main Speakers:

Dominique Desruelle, Deputy Director, African Department, IMF (Eng - Fre)

Félix Fernández-Shaw, Director, DG DEVCO, European Commission (Eng - Fre)

Parallel Session A

Mobilizing revenue (Eng - Fre). The session will consider avenues for mobilizing government revenue, with a focus on two areas: (i) controlling tax expenditures where revenue foregone from tax incentives can be sizeable but is less visible and generally subject to less scrutiny than direct public expenditures, and (ii) navigating taxation of multinationals.

Main Speaker:

Vitor Gaspar, Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF

Chair: Hervé Joly, Center Coordinator, AFRITAC East

Strengthening Infrastructure Governance. Addressing infrastructure needs requires strong infrastructure governance. This session will discuss the Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA)—the IMF’s main tool for assessing infrastructure governance—and its application, as well as challenges for establishing public-private partnerships.

Main Speakers:

Sailendra Narayan Pattanayak, Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF (Eng - Fre)

Kubai Khasiani, AFRITAC East (Eng - Fre)

Jane Kiringai, Commission for Revenue Allocation, Kenya

Main Speaker: Tobias Rasmussen, IMF

Gender-Responsive Budgeting. Equality between women and men is vital for achieving the SDGs and cuts across the whole 2030 Agenda. Gender budgeting is a way for governments to promote equality through fiscal and budgetary policies. The session examines how and to what extent specific fiscal and budgetary policies can contribute to reducing the gender gap in countries. This requires changes in institutional structures and practices. Specific country experiences provide insights on opportunities and challenges to be addressed.

Main Speakers:

Mr. Félix Fernández-Shaw, EC (Eng - Fre)

Kubai Khasiani, AFRITAC East (Eng - Fre)

Concluding Session

Main takeaways: Dominique Desruelle, IMF

Discussion with reactions and feedback from participants

Concluding address: Geoffrey Mwau, National Treasury, Kenya

Press Conference

Geoffrey Mwau, National Treasury, Kenya

Félix Fernández-Shaw, Representative of the European Commission

Dominique Desruelle, Representative of the IMF