IMF leans on regional centres for capacity building

The IMF is changing the way it provides technical assistance and training to member countries to make it more focused, integrated, nimble, and effective, IMF deputy managing director Nemat Shafik said.

As part of the strategy, seven regional training centres and training programmes, based in Austria, Brazil, China, India, Kuwait, Singapore, and Tunisia have been set up to supplement IMF's headquarters-based training facilities, he said.

Speaking to a group of donors that provide funding for capacity building, Shafik noted that the economic difficulties currently experienced in many parts of the world have generated strong demand for IMF technical assistance and training.

Thanks to generous bilateral support and multilateral donor trust funds, which finance a growing share of this core IMF activity, the institution is able to meet the demand, he said.

But as work in this area expands, the IMF has found it necessary to develop a new, more coherent approach to capacity building in order to increase its effectiveness, he added.

''Given where we are, it is time to have a more strategic discussion with all of our donor partners,'' Shafik told the April 23 gathering. ''I hope this is the start of a much more ambitious partnership between us to build capacity on macroeconomic issues.''