KAMPALA, Uganda, April 6, 2015/African Press Organization (APO)/ — The Steering Committee of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Africa Regional Technical Assistance Center East (East AFRITAC) met in Kampala, Uganda from March 30-31, 2015 to assess activities since May 2014, discuss the program of operations for 2015-2020 and review the work plan for fiscal year 2016. Officials from six of the seven member countries attended, together with representatives of donors (the African Development Bank, the UK, EU, Germany, and the Netherlands), the East African Community and IMF staff.
In their opening remarks, State Minister of Finance of Uganda, the Hon. Aston Kajara and Deputy Governor of the Bank of Uganda, Dr. Louis Kasekende, both expressed strong support for East AFRITAC and for the results achieved with the center’s support in Uganda and the other member countries. Officials shared experiences on success stories ranging from developing more robust, accountable and transparent public financial management systems, revenue administration, strengthened financial sector regulation and supervision frameworks to safeguard financial stability.
Steering Committee members endorsed the strategy for Phase IV. They welcomed the lessons learned from the mid-term external evaluation and were pleased with progress in implementing the evaluation’s recommendations. They also supported the center’s enhanced work on regional integration and in building capacity to manage member countries’ natural-resource wealth. Participants welcomed the inclusion of country strategies that integrate East AFRITAC’s capacity development activities with IMF surveillance and program work. They also lauded the comprehensive results-based management framework underlying the program.
The Steering Committee took note of the substantial scaling up of capacity development activities in FY 2015 and applauded for its responsiveness to current capacity development challenges arising from increasingly sophisticated economies and fast-growing financial sectors; and for its regional activities in support of the East African Community’s economic integration. The work plan for FY 2016 was endorsed subject to further clarification on funding.
Member countries expressed their strong ownership of the center by committing to substantially increasing their contributions in the upcoming program phase. Some donor pledges for the phase IV program were received, and work will continue to secure remaining financing needs over the coming months.
Background
East AFRITAC, located in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is one of nine regional IMF technical assistance centers around the world and serves Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. It provides capacity-building assistance in core areas of expertise of the International Monetary Fund including: revenue administration; public financial management; macro-fiscal analysis; financial sector regulation and supervision; monetary policy and operations; payments systems; and economic and financial statistics. Its Steering Committee, composed of the member countries, the IMF and representatives of the donors, oversees and provides guidance on the Center’s operations.
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