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IMF Survey: IMF Aiming to Recruit More Widely
November 5, 2010
The International Monetary Fund (IMF), keen to ensure that its membership is well represented both at the staff level as well as its Executive Board, is sending a mission to East Asia to identify economists from China and Japan as part of a stepped up effort to recruit more widely and improve the balance of staff at the global institution.
IMF’s Siegel: recent recruitment activities have included missions to Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia as part of efforts to enhance diversity (IMF photo)
RECRUITMENT
The recruitment mission, led by Shirley Siegel, the head of the IMF’s Human Resources Department, will visit the two countries November 9–19.
IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, speaking at a path-breaking conference on Asia at Daejeon, Korea, last June said he wanted to make the Fund a second home for Asia by boosting Asian representation and increasing the number of Asian staff in the institution.
The IMF comprises 187 member countries. It has around 2,500 staff, mostly based in Washington, from 158 countries.
“We want to attract qualified Chinese and Japanese economists and specialized staff to work at the IMF, and I will be sending a recruitment team to Asia in November to interview suitable candidates … ” Strauss-Kahn said. Siegel will be in Beijing and Shanghai during November 9–12, and Tokyo during November 15–18.
Moving ahead
Efforts to enhance diversity at the IMF are moving ahead in several ways. Recent recruitment activities have included missions to Africa, the Middle East, and East Asia; hiring of diverse candidates through the Fund’s midcareer interview panel, which assesses candidates’ suitability for appointments as experienced economists; and concerted outreach to underrepresented regions.
In addition, the Fund recently launched a Diversity Scorecard to track progress toward its diversity goals in a transparent way.
The Fund also hosted a two-day World Diversity Leadership Summit, “Change in the U.S. and Globally: Leveraging Diversity Innovation for Competitive Advantage,” in September 2009.
About 400 participants, including senior policymakers, experts, and diversity practitioners from the private sector, government, and nongovernmental organizations, attended the summit, which examined global diversity best practices and case studies as well as diversity legislative frameworks in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Latin America.
As part of a regular exchange of ideas, the IMF invites visiting scholars to work in its Research Department. Both Ila Patnaik and Ajay Shah from India started recently and will stay until the end of November.