Training Catalog Topic

The Legal Department at IMF recently published Fiscal Law Design Considerations in Addressing Gender Inequalities: COVID 19 and Beyond.  In response to the pandemic crisis, several countries embraced tax and spending policies that affected gender equality.  The note examines the legal issues that emerge when countries design fiscal and tax measures to address gender inequality. Legislation can render these initiatives permanent, and the note helpfully explores key elements of effective legal design.  How to make effective temporary policies endure beyond the fiscal year is a perennial challenge for government officials and policymakers.  This peer-to-peer webinar presents a survey of the issues, a case study, and a round table discussion, in order to provide participants with an understanding of the key concepts relevant to addressing gender inequalities, the legal options available and key considerations when seeking to codify approaches and policies into the formal budget process and tax law. The webinar will also give an overview of the broader work of the IMF's Legal Department on legal impediments to women's economic empowerment.

This course, presented by the Legal Department, provides policy makers and practitioners with an overview of strategies and approaches to reducing corruption and enhancing the rule of law. The course is aligned with the IMF’s 2018 Framework for Enhanced Engagement in Governance and international experience with confronting corruption. Drawing upon analytical and case study materials, the course focuses on legal and institutional aspects and effectiveness of anticorruption frameworks, as well as importance of understanding political economy of corruption. The course complements the IMF’s existing capacity development support on addressing governance weaknesses and strengthening broader governance systems.

The workshop covers the following topics: 

1. Why corruption matters. Macroeconomic significance of corruption and IMF’s engagement with member states on corruption (including the 1997 Governance Policy, 2018 Framework on Enhanced Fund Engagement on Governance and the 2023 Review, IMF’s Strategy for Fragile and Conflict-Affected States); 
2. Identifying and prioritizing corruption vulnerabilities – systemic corruption, corrupt systems vs. corrupt transactions (including the political economy of corruption), and the impact of corruption on core state functions; 
3. Anti-corruption strategies – importance of tailored, sequenced, and targeted policies and adaptation over time; 
4. Effective anticorruption laws – international standards and local competencies; and
5. Developing effective institutions – organizational arrangements and effective leadership of anticorruption reform.

Each module frames the issue, identifies points of entry for change, shares typical implementation challenges, and provides opportunities for discussion. Case studies drawn from the region are featured in each module.
 

This online course, presented by the Institute for Capacity Development and the Legal Department, introduces participants to the foundations of central bank law. The course covers the legal issues that are necessary to support sound and effective central banks. It addresses the legal underpinnings of the mandate, decision-making structures, autonomy, accountability, transparency, and operations of central banks. This course combines theoretical components with practical exercises on how to analyze and design central bank legal frameworks.

This course, presented by the Legal Department, is designed to build the capacities of officials tasked with implementing the revised international standards on AML and CFT. The course increases participants’ understanding of the requirements of the revised international AML/CFT standard, the 40 Recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), and the new Methodology for Assessing Compliance with the FATF 40 Recommendations and the Effectiveness of AML/CFT Systems. Incorporated into the course are both practical exercises and in-depth discussions of how to implement selected aspects of the FATF 40 Recommendations.

This course, presented by the Legal Department staff and outside experts, deals with current issues in designing and drafting tax law. It touches on a wide range of issues on the agendas of today’s tax policy makers, especially cross-border/international, base erosion and profit shifting, and avoidance of income and consumption taxes, including in light of the recent OECD/Inclusive Framework two-pillar agreement on international corporate taxation. This course discusses the design of instruments to address those issues, including the tax challenges arising from digitalization. Also covered are other tax law design issues that can affect a country’s fiscal position, such as designing tax incentives and other specific regimes (e.g., natural resource taxation), developing an integrated and appropriate policy for the negotiation and entry into tax treaties, and improving the tax dispute resolution system to deal with arrears and to enhance tax certainty.

This course, presented by the Legal Department, covers legal, institutional, and operational features of IFIs (primarily the IMF and the World Bank), and explores the linkages between these institutions and their members. Institutions to be covered each year may vary.

This course, presented by the Legal Department, covers selected key issues related to the institutional and legal infrastructure necessary to support sound regulation and supervision of banks, bank resolution, safety nets, and crisis management, while taking into account emerging legal developments relevant to financial sector, such as fintech and climate change.

This course, presented by the Legal Department, is designed to highlight the key and core building blocks of a risk-based regulation and supervision framework of off- and on-site activities for supervisory authorities. It discusses the risk-based approach to AML/CFT regulation and supervision, as applied to financial institutions subject to the Core Principles and takes into account the importance of developing robust and effective risk-based supervisory frameworks in line with the international standards for the banking, securities, and insurance sectors.

This course, presented by the Legal Department, covers institutional and legal issues related to sound and effective public financial management. Selected topics covered by the course: the legal foundations and governance-related aspects of budget formulation, preparation, and execution; fiscal rules and institutions; public debt management and transparency; and fiscal governance of state-owned enterprises, public investment management, public-private partnerships, and sovereign wealth funds. The course also takes into account emerging legal developments relevant to public financial management, such as gender and climate change.

This course, presented by the Legal Department, focuses on legal design aspects of current issues related to fiscal and tax laws. It covers a wide range of topics currently on fiscal policy agendas around the world in this era of fiscal tightening. Examples of issues covered are:

• current taxation issues, such as cross-border issues and base erosion, and the design of instruments in the areas of income tax and general consumption taxes (e.g., VAT) to address them;
• budget law issues, such as sound legal principles for organic budget laws, designing fiscal rules, fiscal coordination in a federal context, and the role of fiscal councils;
• aspects of public debt management (PDM) and securities, including legal and institutional aspects of PDM and the issuance of public debt securities; and
• designing legal frameworks for sovereign wealth funds and state-owned enterprises.

This workshop, presented by the Legal Department, offers public officials a forum to share their experience with corporate and household insolvency law reform and implementation, as well as such related issues as enforcement of claims and alternative techniques for the treatment of distressed debt. The global financial crisis and the subsequent national crises have brought to the forefront the need for effective insolvency regimes, and many countries already have or are planning insolvency reforms to address the consequences of changes in the economic environment. The interactive format of this workshop is designed for policy makers from a diverse group of countries dealing with corporate and household insolvency issues, leading international experts, and representatives of the Legal and other functional and area departments, the World Bank, and other international organizations.