IMF Executive Board Discusses the FY 2022–FY 2023 Diversity and Inclusion Report
IMF News, June 27, 2024
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Bibliographic details
- Published: June 27, 2024
Release and procedural background
- Date of release: June 27, 2024.
- The report was discussed by the IMF’s Executive Board on February 20, 2024; the final version reflects inputs from the Board’s discussions.
- Press Release No. 24/245.
- Prepared biennially by the IMF’s Diversity and Inclusion Office in consultation with the Diversity and Inclusion Council.
- Purpose: provides an overview of the institution’s efforts to promote a more diverse and inclusive working environment for all employees.
Executive Board assessment — overall stance
- Directors welcomed the report as comprehensive and insightful.
- Directors recognized the primacy of professional excellence in recruitment and promotion while strongly supporting the diversity and inclusion agenda.
- Directors commended substantial, albeit uneven, progress over the past decade in enhancing gender and geographical diversity among Fund staff, including at the managerial level.
- Directors expected the Fund to become a leading institution in terms of diversity and inclusiveness of staff over the next decade.
Benchmarks, targets, and trajectory concerns
- Directors acknowledged the aspirational nature of the FY2025 benchmarks in principle, but expressed concern that four out of eight will not be achieved.
- Directors noted that meeting the regional URR benchmarks does not capture differences in representation across countries within the region.
- Directors observed the Fund is only on track to meet half of its FY2025 benchmarks.
- Directors noted the Fund is not expected to meet either of the genderbased benchmarks.
- Directors noted the Fund is not expected to meet URR managerial benchmarks for MENA+ and SubSaharan Africa staff.
- Directors regretted that recruitment for the augmentation priority areas has not contributed to an increase in diversity so far.
- While recognizing the challenges of reaching remaining benchmarks by FY2025, Directors stressed the importance of maintaining aspirational and ambitious targets rather than lowering or extending existing targets to align with current trends.
- Many Directors objected to extending the missed benchmarks until 2030 and called for careful consideration of options by the 2030 Benchmarks Working Group.
- Directors encouraged continued refinement of the D&I benchmarks, including their granularity, noting differences within regional benchmarks.
Pipeline, promotions, and internal barriers
- Directors noted:
- lowerthanaverage promotion rate for URR men and women,
- low shares of women and URR staff in managerial grades,
- limited progress with the share of women at the individual contributor (IC) level.
- Directors called for deeper analysis of the internal and external factors that hinder progress in these areas, together with steps to strengthen the pipeline of women and URR staff for managerial positions.
- Directors underscored the importance of a robust accountability framework for managers that provides oversight over all the four key activities (recruitment, appraisal, promotion, separation) that impact diversity, to ensure priority actions to address the gaps are effectively implemented.
Recruitment, retention, and skills diversity
- Directors emphasized obstacles to recruitment of diverse staff, including:
- limited candidate pools,
- competition from other IFIs and the private sector,
- G4 visa restrictions for certain groups.
- Directors emphasized making greater efforts to attract and retain people with diverse educational backgrounds, linguistic skills, and practical professional experiences.
- Directors encouraged increased cooperation with other multilateral institutions to learn from their best practices.
- Directors welcomed expansion of recruitment efforts in URRs, including in high quality universities in different regions.
- Directors considered that lack of heterogeneity in educational and professional background could be a root cause of the lack of overall diversity at the Fund.
Broader dimensions of diversity and inclusion initiatives
- Several Directors called for consideration of broader aspects of diversity beyond gender and nationality, such as:
- religion, culture, race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, age, and gender identity.
- Directors welcomed the discussion on staff with disabilities and the deeper analysis currently underway to provide a holistic picture and foster a more inclusive environment.
- Directors emphasized the importance of creating an inclusive environment which values and integrates differing views, workstyles, cultural norms, skills, and competencies.
- Directors urged steadfast implementation of the Racial Equity and Justice Advisory Group (REJAG)’s recommendations to reduce the perception of bias.
- Directors called for greater ambition to instill a culture where diversity and inclusion is valued by staff, managers, and leaders, and encouraged staff to continue raising awareness through additional training.
Governance and Board composition
- Directors called for an increase in gender diversity at the Board and regretted the lack of progress on this front.
- Directors strongly supported ongoing efforts by the Working Group on Gender Diversity of the Executive Board and called on all members of the Executive Board to work with their authorities to raise diversity at the Board.
International Monetary Fund — IMF Executive Board Discusses the FY 2022–FY 2023 Diversity and Inclusion Report, Press Release No. 24/245, June 27, 2024.
References
- https://www.imf.org/-/media/images/imf/bios/imfboard.jpg
- The Executive Board
- Press Releases
- PRESS CENTER
- biennial report
- [[1]](https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2017/11/17/pr17446-imf-board-discusses-fy-2016-2017-diversity-and-inclusion-annual-report)
- http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/misc/qualifiers.htm
- https://www.imf.org/en/home
