Public Expenditure Newsletter Issue
7, January - June 2003
Board
Paper on Bank and Fund Collaboration
In
response to a request from the World Bank and IMF's Executive Directors,
PRMPS and the Fiscal Affairs Department staff prepared a paper on
Bank Fund collaboration on Public Expenditure work which was discussed
at the Fund's Board on March 12, 2003 and the Bank's Board on March
13, 2003. The paper reviewed the experience of collaboration and
included a survey of officials in 83 governments, Bank and Fund
staff, and donor agency representatives; to identify stakeholder
perceptions of the effectiveness of collaboration. Drawing on this
review, the paper proposed a framework for more effective public
expenditure work by both institutions. Key aspects of the new framework,
consistent with the Monterrey summit agreement are:
encouraging and enabling a country-owned PE reform strategy;
more
effective coordination of technical and financial support to governments
for implementation of a country-owned strategy;
rationalization
of diagnostic work by development partners to minimize transactions
costs to countries; and
periodic
country reporting of PE systemic performance to enable progress
to be monitored.
The
framework was endorsed by the Boards of both the Bank and the IMF.
Staff guidance to implement the new framework is being developed
and will be discussed with operational and network staff over the
coming months.
