Press Release No. 07/235

Press Release: Enhancing Bank-Fund Collaboration: Joint Management Action Plan

October 19, 2007

On October 10, 2007, the Executive Board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) discussed "Enhancing Collaboration: Joint Management Action Plan—Follow-up to the Report of the External Review Committee on IMF-World Bank Collaboration."

The Joint Management Action Plan (JMAP), which was also discussed recently by the Executive Board of the World Bank, follows up on the findings of the External Review Committee that was commissioned by the Managing Director of the IMF and the President of the World Bank in March 2006 to look into Bank-Fund collaboration. The Committee's Report, which was released in February 2007, called for the strengthening of the culture of collaboration between the two institutions, and made a number of proposals in that direction.

Following informal discussions in the Boards of the IMF and the World Bank, the spring Development Committee and IMFC Communiqués looked forward to seeing the recommendations taken forward.

The JMAP was prepared against the background of these discussions, and was based on the results of a staff survey, recommendations from six joint Bank-Fund staff working groups, and a joint staff retreat. It builds on the existing division of labor between the two institutions and seeks to make best practice common practice. It identifies a series of specific measures that are designed to:

(i) improve coordination on country issues—through new procedures for country team coordination, including regular meetings on work programs, agreement on instruments and division of labor, and new systems for requesting and tracking inputs from the other institution;

(ii) enhance communications between the staff of the two institutions working on common thematic issues—through new electronic platforms for the sharing of focal point names, documents, mission schedules, and other information among staff in the two institutions working on country teams and/or the financial sector, fiscal issues, and technical cooperation; and

(iii) improve incentives and central support for collaboration on policies, reviews, and other institutional issues—through new procedures for reflecting collaboration in staff and managerial performance reviews; and the replacement of the Joint Implementation Committee by an information and monitoring clearing-house function in the two institutions.

The JMAP focuses on areas within the purview of the managements of the two institutions, recognizing that broader governance issues raised in the External Review are matters for the shareholders of the IMF and World Bank.

The IMF and World Bank will begin implementing the JMAP immediately after the October 2007 Annual Meetings, and will prepare periodic progress reports, highlighting emerging examples of good practice as well as problem areas that need further attention. An interim report will be prepared for the two managements in time for the 2008 Annual Meetings, as a basis for taking stock of implementation efforts.