Capacity Development in Africa: the Faces behind the Numbers
IMF Blog, April 7, 2016
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Bibliographic details
- Authors: Carla Grasso
- Published: April 7, 2016
Overview
- Author: Carla Grasso
- Date: April 7, 2016
- Versions in: عربي (Arabic), 中文 (Chinese), Français (French), 日本語 (Japanese), Português (Portuguese), Русский (Russian), and Español (Spanish)
- Central premise: Without good data, it is difficult to assess how an economy is performing and formulate smart policies that help improve lives.
- Illustration of progress: Mozambique went from having no national accounts or consumer price index to creating one of the leading statistical agencies in Sub-Saharan Africa in little over twenty years.
- Field engagement: The author’s 10-day visit in early March provided first-hand observations of IMF capacity development work in sub-Saharan Africa.
Peer-to-peer learning and knowledge sharing
- Observed practice: A workshop in Tanzania organized jointly by the IMF and the central bank where officials from across the region discussed expanding access to finance and financial vulnerabilities.
- Value emphasized by participants: Experience-sharing outside formal courses—“peer-to-peer learning”—is important for capacity development.
- Objectives of peer learning platforms:
- Facilitate policymakers facing similar challenges to learn from each other.
- Help set common policy goals.
- Example of outcomes:
- Senegal is using peer learning to implement its new development strategy with the goal of becoming an emerging market economy within the next two decades.
- Senegal is drawing on experiences from Cape Verde, Mauritius, and Seychelles to:
- introduce tax identification numbers,
- set up credit information bureaus,
- develop tourism and special economic zones.
Hands-on learning and integration with policy advice
- Approach: Capacity development is integral to IMF dialogue with member countries and goes beyond issuing policy advice or technical reports to working hands-on with officials.
- Practical collaboration areas:
- Country teams and fiscal experts work together when advising how to broaden the tax base or spend more productively.
- Strengthening knowledge management systems to make expert knowledge easily shareable throughout the IMF.
- Tailoring: Capacity development must be tailored to country needs and integrated into development strategies.
- Presence: Anchoring capacity development in the economic realities of countries is easier when the IMF is present on the ground in regionally based centers.
- Training example: The Africa Training Institute in Mauritius hosted a regional conference on the future of monetary integration in Africa, relevant as the region plans deeper monetary integration including setting up an East Africa Monetary Union.
Fiscal frameworks, commodity shocks, and building cushions
- 2014 initiative: The IMF co-sponsored a major conference in Mozambique on the theme of “Africa Rising,” recognizing the risks that natural resource wealth can become a curse without strong frameworks.
- Policy focus: Work with governments to begin putting in place strong fiscal frameworks to manage resource revenues for current and future generations.
- Changing context:
- Fast forward two years, officials see the urgency of stronger fiscal frameworks as they grapple with the effects of oil and other commodities’ plunging price.
- This underscores the need for countries to build cushions and develop the capacity—in good times and in bad—to respond to potential shocks.
- Partnerships: IMF capacity development relies on close work with recipient countries and many partners around the world whose financial support enables the provision of capacity development advice.
The people behind the numbers
- Motivating insight: Face-to-face engagement and human stories underscore the purpose of capacity development—improving lives and futures.
- Personal observation: Visit to Watoto Wetu orphanage in Tanzania where children sang as a reminder of the real-world impact of economic policy and capacity development.
Source: Capacity Development in Africa: the Faces behind the Numbers — Carla Grasso, April 7, 2016.
Content in this bundle
- 非洲能力建设：数字背后的面孔; iMFdirect博客; 2016年4月7日
- アフリカの能力構築：数字の裏にあるもの: カルラ・グラッソ iMFdirect ブログ 2016年4月7日掲載
- Desenvolvimento de capacidades em África: os rostos por trás dos números
- Развитие потенциала в Африке. Люди, стоящие за цифрами
- 040716s