Stanley Fischer -- Farewell to the Staff

IMF News, October 1, 2001

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Stanley Fischer -- Farewell to the Staff

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Bibliographic details

• Published: October 1, 2001

Introduction

• Occasion: Farewell event at the IMF Atrium, Washington, D.C.; publication date: October 1, 2001.
• Speaker acknowledges organizers and named individuals who contributed to the event.
• Context: Remarks given in the aftermath of the events of September 11; speaker emphasizes the importance of the Fund's spirit of cooperation and shared values: freedom, tolerance, transparency, and openness.
• Personal note: Decision to leave the Fund after seven fascinating and rewarding years; multiple farewells beginning in the last week of August.

Strengths of the Staff

• Staff characteristics highlighted:
  • Loyalty as a defining characteristic.
  • Talent and capacity for hard work.
  • Esprit de corps and dedication to "getting it right."
• Managerial observation:
  • Staff consistently produces high class work under tight schedules and difficult intellectual challenges.
  • The speaker values working directly with staff and credits staff contributions for institutional achievements, including training initiatives.

More on the Staff (roles, risks, and contributions)

• Roles across the institution:
  • Economists, administrators and assistants, security staff, librarians, IT experts, accountants, lawyers, writers, editors, translators, human resources specialists, press and external relations people.
• Risks and sacrifice:
  • Staff have put themselves in physical danger while on missions (example: Resident Representative Mr. Khenissi in Sierra Leone after the coup in May 1997).
• Institutional services:
  • Through surveillance, technical assistance and lending, the Fund provides services to nearly all of its 183 members.
• External pressures:
  • Anti-globalization protests have complicated Annual and Spring Meetings, kept some staff in the building overnight, and in some cases exposed staff to abuse and intimidation (example: Prague).
• Resident Representatives:
  • Speaker regards Resident Representatives around the world as an underused resource.

Thanks to Individuals and Operational Details

• Personal acknowledgements for operational support and advisers:
  • Cafeteria staff (Teo Villagra) and dining-service personnel.
  • Office staff: Keila Moses (runs the office of the FDMD) and Ernie Parham.
  • David Naismith (frequent travel to Dulles and Reagan National).
  • Advisers: Mohamed El-Erian, David Burton, the late Owen Evans, Dan Citrin, Ratna Sahay.
  • Speechwriter: Robert Chote.
• Board and Secretariat support:
  • Executive Directors, Ali Hassan, Robert Boykin, and members of the Secretary's Department, especially Shail Anjaria.
  • Heads of department and management colleagues named: P.R. Narvekar, Alassane Ouattara, Shige Sugisaki, Eduardo Aninat, Jack Boorman, Tom Dawson.
• Family acknowledgement:
  • Thanks to family, especially Rhoda, for support.

Institutional investments and staff well-being

• Training:
  • Growth and success of the internal economics training program under the IMF Institute; thanks to Mohsin Khan for strengthening economics training.
  • Management commitment to increase the number of days of training offered to staff.
• Working environment:
  • Phase III completed in 1998 (the gallery).
  • HQ2 is under way.
• Diversity and promotions:
  • HRD has made important strides in ensuring diversity.
  • Speaker urges promotion authorities to ensure promotion practices advance diversity, noting this can often be done "not only at no cost to the ability of the Fund to do its job, but rather to our mutual benefit."
• Work–family balance:
  • Recognition of the burden placed on families by staff travel; importance of enabling staff to balance work and family lives.

Challenges Identified

• Four principal challenges named:

1. Backlash against globalization:

• Need to move debate away from polarized pro/anti arguments and focus on policies that deliver equitable growth, anticipate problems, and respond effectively.
• Need to listen to critics across media, academia, streets, and policy circles; develop simple, appealing messages without apologizing for the Fund's foundational beliefs.

2. Volatility of international capital flows:

• Markets work imperfectly and are prone to excessive volatility.
• Priority to make markets work better, prevent crises, and minimize crisis costs.
• Private sector involvement (PSI) described as a disappointment so far.
• Need to develop a better framework for debt rescheduling/restructurings; reschedulings should not be costless but penalties should not be as severe as they are now.
• Encouraging the recent agreement between the MD and the Secretary of the United States Treasury to work towards setting up an international bankruptcy court.

3. Fund conditionality and ownership:

• Need to get the relationship between Fund conditionality and ownership right; important strides already made under the Managing Director's leadership.

4. Support for the poorest members and the fight against poverty:

• Reinforces the Fund's duty to work for the economic well-being of all members.
• Argues for direct interest in poverty because policies perceived as inequitable are unsustainable; donor countries will not support policies seen as anti-poor.

Institutional Strengths and Foundations

• Core strengths listed:
  • Continuing validity of core objectives as set out in Article I.
  • The Fund as a universal institution: membership includes virtually every economy of significance, enabling the Executive Board to speak on behalf of the international community.
  • Institutional knowledge: staff and institution draw on experience across all 183 members in surveillance, technical assistance, and program design.
• Guiding principle for policy advice:
  • Speaker uses a personal rule: never ask a policymaker to do something he would not be willing to do in that policymaker's position.

Conclusion

• Closing sentiments:
  • Gratitude for seven years of partnership with the Fund staff.
  • Pride in association with the institution and appreciation for farewell statements received.
  • Best wishes offered to staff and the institution for the future.

International Monetary Fund

References

• Sierra Leone and the IMF
• United States and the IMF
• Speeches
• PRESS CENTER
• https://www.imf.org/external/np/omd/bios/sf.htm
• Remarks by Horst Köhler
• [Remarks by

Eduardo Aninat](https://www.imf.org/external/np/omd/2001/sffd/ea.htm)

• Remarks by Shigemitsu Sugisaki
• [Remarks by

Jack Boorman](https://www.imf.org/external/np/omd/2001/sffd/jb.htm)

• [Remarks by

Chris Jarvis](https://www.imf.org/external/np/omd/2001/sffd/cj.htm)

• https://www.imf.org/en/home