Washington, DC : The Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded the Eleventh Periodic Monitoring Report (PMR) on the Status of Management Implementation Plans (MIPs) in Response to Board‑Endorsed Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) Recommendations .
Since being instituted in January 2007, the PMR has been reporting on the state of implementation of Board-endorsed IEO recommendations. The Eleventh PMR assessed the progress made over the past 18 months on 72 actions contained in 10 MIPs. These include three new MIPs in response to recent IEO evaluations issued after the Tenth PMR, and another seven MIPs in response to older evaluations.
The Eleventh PMR concluded that significant progress has been made with the implementation of management actions, despite challenges that have arisen from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the effect of reprioritization to make space for the urgent needs of the membership resulting from the pandemic, the pace of implementation observed in the Eleventh PMR, with the 29 actions closed, significantly exceeded the previous trend of about 15 implemented actions per year. Strong progress has been made on actions in response to the IEO evaluations on IMF Advice on Unconventional Monetary Policies and IMF Financial Surveillance.
Further progress over the next year on the MIP in response to the evaluation on The IMF and Fragile States is contingent on the completion of the Strategy for Enhanced Fund Engagement with Fragile and Conflict-Affected States. Progress is also being made on the MIP in response to the evaluation on Behind the Scenes with Data at the IMF, but several circumstances have led to delays in completing several actions that depend on the projected March 2022 completion of the Review of Data Provision to the Fund for Surveillance Purposes.
Executive Board Assessment
Executive Directors welcomed the opportunity to discuss the Eleventh Periodic Monitoring Report (PMR) on the Status of Management Implementation Plans (MIPs) in Response to Board‑Endorsed Independent Evaluation Office Recommendations. They broadly endorsed the assessment of implementation status contained in the PMR.
Directors were encouraged to see that the pace of implementing management action plans has accelerated despite the challenges brought by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. They welcomed, in particular, the strong progress in recent MIPs, including in response to the IEO evaluations on IMF Advice on Capital Flows, IMF Advice on Unconventional Monetary Policies, and IMF Financial Surveillance.
Directors regretted that about half of the open actions are more than one year past their implementation due dates. In this context, they called on the accountable Fund Departments to expedite implementation of all delayed open actions, particularly those that respond to the IEO evaluations on IMF Financial Surveillance, The IMF and Fragile States, The IMF and Social Protection, Behind the Scenes with Data at the IMF, and The Role of the IMF as Trusted Advisor. Directors also looked forward to the reformulation of the agreed eight actions to make them more effective and measurable, in line with the Board-approved triage framework for long standing open actions.
Directors welcomed the ongoing work to develop a framework to assess the impact of slippages in the implementation of open actions, while acknowledging that this is a difficult but important exercise to enhance governance. They agreed that it will be important to define “impact” ex-ante, as part of the MIP process, and to analyze the multiple actions that are proposed in response to a single recommendation in respect of their collective effectiveness rather than individually. Many Directors suggested that the Office of Risk Management could assess the impact of slippages in the implementation of open actions on enterprise risk. Directors looked forward to receiving a draft framework by the end of the fiscal year.