4th Session of the Continental Steering Committee IMF Support to African Countries for the Implementation of the 2008 SNA 4th Session of the Continental Steering Committee Addis Ababa, November 17-18, 2015

Outline IMF/STA’s strategy Activities during FY2015 FY2016 activities Challenges/Constraints Success factors Going forward

Strategy Promote internationally accepted statistical methodologies and compilation practices__Update of the 2001 QNA manual Provide TA to member countries: NA & Price statistics, high frequency indicators Improve source data (DFID project) Develop/Implement dissemination policy/strategy TA based on action plans, benchmark actions Coordination with other TA providers—AFRISTAT Adopt a regional approach : RTACs

Strategy 5 AFRITACs + METAC --) covering 47 African countries: AFRITAC East (07) AFRITAC West (10) AFRITAC Central (08) AFRITAC South (13) AFRITAC West 2 (06) METAC (10 including 3 African countries) STA HQ: Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Djibouti, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, and Djibouti, will join METAC in FY2017

Activities More than 200 TA and more 25 trainings conducted during FY2014 and FY2015 Focus on: Implementation of SNA 2008 starting with most recent benchmark year—Nigeria 2013 Implementation of QNA for “advanced” countries__ANA, HFI Development of sector accounts and full sequence of NA for some countries__Cameroon Improving data dissemination: ROSC missions_DQAF, multisector missions, IMF standards for data dissemination—GDDS, e-GDDS, SDDS, SDDS+__Metadata__Enhance transparency, availability, timeliness and comprehensiveness of statistics.

FY2016 Activities 108 TA missions on national accounts 16 regional workshops (RTACs/STA/ATI) 1 three-week course at HQ Topics covered Annual national accounts (inc. 2008 SNA) Sector accounts and balance sheet Quarterly national accounts High Frequency Indicators Natural resources accounts Funding : IMF, Donors including EU, and DFID__ United Kingdom’s Department for International Development

Challenges/Constraints Funding/Resource Issues: Low pay resulting in high staff turnover Understaffing. Inadequate budgets for data collection Lack of : Adequate basic economic statistics, Proper business register, Price statistics (other than CPI), etc. Lack of independence of NSOs

Challenges/Constraints (contd.) Weak leadership within the NSO Inadequate data coordination/cooperation It takes long to release new series of national accounts

Success factors Regional cooperation Focus on what is feasible and sustainable Appropriate phasing and modality of TA delivery Effective user consultation and involvement Establishing formal and/or informal statistical coordination mechanisms Increasing awareness/understanding of need for sound economic statistics by the authorities/donors …

Going forward The IMF will continue to provide training and TA to all African countries: Through RTACs From IMF Headquarters Through training at IMF Headquarters, RTACs and Regional Training Centers

Going forward UNECA’s initiative to bring the entire continent together to improve national accounts has been a great innovation The IMF will continue to collaborate closely Going forward, the IMF proposes to focus meetings on key substantive issues: UNECA could thus nominate a regional national accounts “champion” in charge of: leading technical discussions (e.g. rebasing and time series, improvement of source data and timeliness, high frequency indicators and quarterly national accounts, etc.) drafting technical notes from the outcome of the meetings