Press Release No. 23/284

IMF Board Appoints the High-Level Panel for The External Evaluation of the Independent Evaluation Office

July 31, 2023

Washington, DC:The International Monetary Fund’s Executive Board appointed a high-level panel to undertake an external evaluation of the IMF’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO). The evaluation will assess how successfully the IEO has met its goals to serve as a means to enhance the learning culture within the Fund, strengthen the Fund’s external credibility, and support the Executive Board’s institutional governance and oversight responsibilities. The evaluators have discretion in the conduct of their evaluation within this broad contour.

When the IEO was established by the IMF Executive Board in 2001, it was envisaged that periodic external evaluations would be carried out to assess its effectiveness and to consider possible improvements to its structure, mandate, operational modalities, or Terms of Reference . This would be the fourth evaluation of the IEO and is expected to be concluded by mid-2024. The first, second, and third external evaluations were commissioned and discussed by the IMF Executive Board in 2006, 2013 and 2018 respectively.

The external evaluators are expected to hold their first round of discussions in Marrakech during the 2023 IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings. The panel is chaired by Pablo García‐Silva and includes two other members: Zhongxia Jin and Daouda Sembene. Short biographical statements follow below:

Pablo García-Silva is currently Vice Governor of the Central Bank of Chile and President of the Irving Fisher Committee (IFC) of the Bank for International Settlements. Before being appointed as member of the Board of the Central Bank of Chile Board in 2014, Mr. García-Silva served as Executive Director and Alternate Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund of the Southern Cone constituency, from November 2010 to January 2014. Previously, Mr. García-Silva held different positions at the Central Bank of Chile, including as Director of the Research Division and Director of the Financial Policy Division.

Zhongxia Jin currently serves as Director-General of the International Department, the People’s Bank of China. Prior to this appointment, Mr. Jin was Executive Director for China at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from February 2015 to May 2022. Before his tenure as Executive Director at the IMF, Mr. Jin held a number of positions in the People’s Bank of China, including at the International Department, Representative Office in Americas, the Monetary Policy Department, and as Director-General of the Research Institute. He also served as General Secretary for the China Financial Accounting Association in 2013-2014 and has been a Member of the China Finance 40 Forum since 2012.

Daouda Sembene is the founder and CEO of AfriCatalyst, a global development advisory based in Senegal. He is affiliated with the Washington-based Center for Global Development (CGD) and the Accra-based African Centre for Economic Transformation (ACET) as Distinguished Nonresident Fellow. Previously, he was a senior economic advisor to the President of Senegal and was appointed by the Chairperson of the African Union as Special Advisor on food security. Mr. Sembene served as Executive Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) from November 2016 to October 2018. Prior to that, Mr. Sembene held several positions at the IMF, including at the Research Department and the Independent Evaluation Office