## Managing Director’s Remarks Opening of the IEO@20 Conference

_IMF News, November 16, 2021_

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**Canonical URL:** [Managing Director’s Remarks Opening of the IEO@20 Conference](https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2021/11/16/sp111621-md-opening-remarks-ieo-conference)

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## Bibliographic details
- Published: November 16, 2021

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### Context and purpose
- Occasion: 20th anniversary of the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO).
- Speaker: Managing Director.
- Date: November 16, 2021.
- Overarching theme: the IEO as a pillar of the IMF’s learning culture—helping the IMF analyze past experience, adapt to change, and improve policy advice and operational effectiveness.

### Role and institutional design of the IEO
- Independent operation: "It operates both fully independently from the IMF Management and at arm's length from the Executive Board."
- Core goals the IEO serves:
  - To enhance the learning culture within the Fund.
  - To support institutional governance and accountability.
  - To strengthen the Fund's external credibility.
- Institutional advantage emphasized: agility, streamlined design, responsiveness, and use of a range of evaluation modalities (including short format and updates) to be timely and impactful.

### Notable contributions and concrete examples
- Historical framing: Born after the Asian crisis; came of age with the Global Financial Crisis.
- Five examples where the IEO helped the Fund improve:
  - After the Global Financial Crisis and the European debt crisis, the IEO prompted the Fund to rethink its approach to crisis prevention and response; this learning informed the Fund's emergency response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  - Integration of social spending into economic policy advice—especially crucial during the COVID-19 crisis.
  - Evaluation on fragile states—informing a new comprehensive strategy for countries falling further behind during the pandemic.
  - Insights critical for advancing IMF thinking on capital flows and the Integrated Policy Framework.
  - Advice on how to further enhance collaboration with the World Bank—vital for pandemic response and for addressing the climate crisis.

### Learning, implementation, and quality improvements
- Emphasis on learning: quote cited — “Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.”
- Management response to IEO recommendations:
  - Implementation plans have become continuous-improvement tools.
  - Plans are now more focused and include actions that are SMART—that is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Timebound.
  - Increased focus on concise, readable evaluations drawing on systematic evidence.

### Forward-looking priorities and requests to the IEO
- The world is fast-changing; the IEO should remain a partner as the Fund adapts.
- Calls for timely evaluations of the IMF’s COVID-19 early response (evaluation already underway) to inform:
  - Crisis prevention.
  - Crisis management.
  - Handling future shocks in an increasingly shock-prone world.
- Request for insights on resilience:
  - Define resilience more comprehensively — including resilience of people and of the planet.
  - Embed such definitions into policy discussions with member countries to improve the quality of their efforts to accelerate needed transformations.

### Tone and institutional relationship
- A candid and engaged partnership: management may not always see eye to eye with the IEO, but both work toward the best outcomes from evaluations and their translation into IMF work.
- Mutual evolution: the IEO’s contributions over twenty years have helped create a more resilient IMF; the IMF counts on the IEO to help deliver support for greater resilience of members and the world economy.

*Managing Director’s Remarks Opening of the IEO@20 Conference, November 16, 2021.*

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## References

- [https://www.imf.org/en/about/senior-officials/bios/kristalina-georgieva](https://www.imf.org/en/about/senior-officials/bios/kristalina-georgieva)
- [Speeches](https://www.imf.org/en/news/searchnews)
- [PRESS CENTER](http://presscenter.imf.org/)
- [https://www.imf.org/en/home](https://www.imf.org/en/home)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/news/articles/2021/11/16/sp111621-md-opening-remarks-ieo-conference_