2024 Review Of The Fund’s Transparency Policy And Open Archives Policy

2024 REVIEW OF THE FUND’S TRANSPARENCY POLICYAND OPEN ARCHIVES POLICY IMF staff regularly produces papers proposing new IMF policies, exploring options forreform, or reviewing existing IMF policies and operations. The following documents havebeen released and are included in this package: •APress Releasesummarizing the views of the Executive Board as expressed during itsNovember 15, 2024, consideration of the staff report. •TheStaff Report, prepared by IMF staff and completed on October 1, 2024, for theExecutive Board’s consideration on November 15, 2024. •AStaff Supplement,setting out the proposed decisions. The documents listed below have been or will be separately released. •2024 Review of the Fund’s Transparency Policy and Open Archives Policy—Background Paper 1 on Key Trends.•2024 Review of the Fund’s Transparency Policy and Open Archives Policy—Background Paper 2 on Consultations with Executive Directors, Country Authorities,Mission Chiefs, and Civil Society Organizations.•2024 Review of the Fund’s Transparency Policy and Open Archives Policy—Background Paper 3 on Key Concepts and Supportive Analysis. The IMF’s transparency policy allows for the deletion of market-sensitive information andpremature disclosure of the authorities’ policy intentions in published staff reports andother documents. Electronic copies of IMF Policy Papersare available to the public fromhttp://www.imf.org/external/pp/ppindex.aspx International Monetary FundWashington, D.C. IMF Executive Board Concludes the Review of TransparencyPolicy and Open Archives Policy and Approves Reforms FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE •The IMF Executive Board concluded the Review of the Fund’s Transparency and OpenArchive Policies and approved reforms to improve their design and implementation tobetter adapt the policies to the current shock-prone world and fast-moving mediaenvironment. •Key reforms under the Transparency Policy include steps to reinforce the policy’sobjectives, including protecting the independence of staff analysis, ensure fastercommunication of the IMF Board’s views and document publication, and strengthen therules and processes to modify Board documents ahead of publication, including tobetter capture authorities’ views in surveillance reports. •The reforms under the Open Archives Policy allow for the faster release of somedocuments, adapt archival records to the modern digital environment, and helpmanage implementation risks with adequate oversight. Washington, DC–November 25, 2024:On November 15, 2024, the Executive Board ofthe International Monetary Fund (IMF) concluded its review of the IMF’sTransparencyPolicy and Open Archives Policy. These policies were last reviewed in 2013. The value of transparency for the IMF is well recognized. Transparency enhances theFund’s credibility, effectiveness, and the traction of its advice by making importantdocuments and the Fund’s views available to the public on a timely basis. Transparencyalso supports the quality of Fund surveillance and program work by subjecting the Fundto outside scrutiny and accountability. Thus, transparency is important to support theFund in fulfilling its mandate of promoting global economic and financial stability. Over the past decade, the IMF has made significant progress towards greatertransparency. Nearly all Board documents are now published and are on averagepublished more quickly. The information available in the Fund’s archives has significantlyincreased and is more easily accessible to the public. The policy’s principles and objectivesare largely shared by the membership. Experience with the implementation of the Transparency Policy and feedback fromstakeholders suggest that the policy is effective, but there is room for improvement. Somecountry papers continue to be published with long delays and the timeliness ofcommunicating the Board’s surveillance activities could be improved. Concerns about theevenhanded application of the modification rules under the policy have abated since thelast review but remain among some stakeholders. Finally, developments since the lastreview suggest that the scope of the policy needs to be extended. The paperproposes reforms to improve the Transparency Policy and its implementation,focusing on five areas: (i) reinforcing the objectives underlying the policy; (ii) ensuring theadequate scope and coverage of the policy; (iii) supporting faster communication of theBoard’s decisions and document publication; (iv) strengthening the rules and processesfor modifying Board documents prior to publication, including the presentation ofauthorities’ views, removal of confidential information and modification of policydocuments; and (v) enhancing safeguards under the policy. In addition, the paperrecommends steps to improve processes and better support the effective implementationof the policy. The paper also finds that the Open Archives Policy remains broadly adequate.Nevertheless, the paper proposes specific adjustments to