1. 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

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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.

6. 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 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

7. 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

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

9. 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 …

10. 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

11. 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