Technical Assistance Reports
2024
December 13, 2024
Mongolia: Technical Assistance Report-Macroeconomic Framework Technical Assistance: Scoping Mission
Description: Further to Mongolia’s Ministry of Finance (MOF) request, an assessment mission was carried out from May 24 to June 2, 2023. The mission reviewed the needs, capacity and constraints for the development of institutional macroeconomic forecasting capacity at the Financial and Fiscal Research Department (FFRD). Notably, despite FFRD’s ambitious goals in fiscal policymaking, a comprehensive macroeconomic framework for analysis, forecasting, and assessing fiscal policy's macroeconomic impact is not yet in place. The action plan and logical framework is centered around capacity development and customization of the Comprehensive Adaptive Expectations Model (CAEM) to the Mongolia economy. This note summarizes the main findings and action plan agreed on for the project.
December 11, 2024
Sierra Leone: Technical Assistance Report-Climate Policy Diagnostic
Description: Sierra Leone faces important development challenges. This includes dealing with the impacts of climate change such as rising temperatures, more frequent extreme hot days, and increasingly erratic rainfall patterns, with intensified single-day precipitation events. This is especially important given the country’s strong dependence on agriculture and hydropower. Climate change also requires improved Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and more forward-looking risk assessments. On the mitigation side, competing development needs have led to rapid urbanization and deforestation requiring a more integrated approach to land policy, planning, and forest protection. The country also needs substantial investments in its electricity, water, and waste sectors but private investment is lacking. The mission reviewed the current fiscal policies supporting climate action and provided recommendations to support the long-term climate resilience in Sierra Leone, while aligning with its overall development objectives.
December 11, 2024
Uganda: Technical Assistance Report-The Cost of Meeting the Sustainable Development Goals in Human Capital and Infrastructure Development
Description: The mission estimates that making substantial progress in critical SDG sectors in Uganda would require additional annual spending of about 18.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030. Relative to low-income developing countries (LIDCs), additional spending in Uganda is higher in the social sectors and lower in the infrastructure sectors (Figure). Overall, Uganda’s additional spending is above the median LIDC and similar to the median Sub-Saharan African (SSA) country. (This analysis is an assessment of the spending to achieve a high performance in selected SDGs in Uganda and does not include an examination of options to finance the spending needs.) • Health—expanding the supply of medical staff. Total health care spending is low (4.2 percent of GDP) relative to peers, and there is substantial room to increase the efficiency of spending: health outcomes are below those of several other countries with similar spending. Overall, we estimate that total health care spending would have to gradually increase by an additional 7.4 percent of GDP in 2030 relative to today’s spending, to deliver superior health care outcomes. A major contributor to the additional cost is the need to substantially increase the supply of doctors—more than 16-fold—and to nearly triple the number of other health personnel. • Education—strengthening both quality and quantity of services. Uganda’s young population—60 percent are school-aged, a higher share than in the East African Community (EAC) and LIDC peers—combined with a relatively low enrollment rate, means that the country needs to invest in getting its children into schools. However, just as important is improving the currently low level of educational quality. Toward this goal, class sizes need to fall by hiring more teachers, thus bringing the student-teacher ratio down from 28 to 19. Public spending, currently well below LIDC and EAC averages, would need to triple as a share of GDP to help deliver on these goals. We estimate that Uganda’s total expenditures on education would need to increase by an additional 6.7 percent of GDP from its current level of 7.1 percent of GDP. • Water and sanitation—aiming at safely managed water and sanitation for all. Uganda is below regional and income-group peers in water and sanitation standards. In particular, while there has been progress in water provision, sanitation services have hardly improved in the past two decades, and its provision is lower than most countries in the subregion. Closing the water and sanitation gaps will require an additional annual spending of 1.1 percent of GDP, including maintenance costs to counteract depreciation. The bulk of the cost burden comes from safely managed water in rural areas, given the relatively high unit cost of such facilities and the large rural population unserved by this type of facility. • Electricity—investing in transmission and distribution networks to increase access. The vast majority of Uganda’s electricity is generated by renewable energy (hydropower). Overall electricity consumption per capita, at 83kilowatt-hour (kWh), strongly lags LIDCs and is below what would be expected given its level of GDP per capita. Transmission and distribution networks need to catch up with installed capacity, which, at 1,347 megawatts (MW), is far ahead of peak demand at 793 MW. We estimate that expanding current access, serving the future population through 2030, and increasing consumption in line with economic growth, will require annual investments reaching 0.4 percent of GDP in 2030. • Roads—gradually increasing rural access. Raising access to roads from its current level of 53 percent of the rural population to 75 percent by 2030 will require about 20.4 thousand additional kilometers of all-weather roads. While rural road access is higher than LIDCs, road quality lags subregional peers, thus the expansion of access will also need to include upgrading of roads in that are in poor condition. We estimate that this will require annual investments of 2.8 percent of GDP in 2030.
December 6, 2024
Papua New Guinea: Technical Assistance Report-Financial Sector Stability Review
Description: The main objective of the FSSR diagnostic mission was to help the PNG authorities build a roadmap of technical assistance (TA) to address identified financial sector needs and gaps, with a view to strengthen resilience of financial institutions and to enhance the policy framework. The PNG FSSR diagnostic covered six areas: (i) macroprudential policy; (ii) regulation and supervision of banks and other deposit-taking financial institutions; (iii) regulation and supervision of insurance companies and pension funds; (iv) financial safety net and crisis preparedness framework; (v) financial market infrastructure; and (vi) financial sector statistics.
December 6, 2024
Sri Lanka: Technical Assistance Report-Debt Management Reform Plan
Description: The Sri Lankan authorities have embarked on an ambitious reform of its public debt management functions. There is consensus that the fragmented public debt management (PDM) legal framework and PDM functions across departments within the MoF and the CBSL have contributed to the lack of coherent management of the public debt in Sri Lanka. It has also contributed to a lack of comprehensive public debt reporting and management of public guarantees, reducing debt transparency. A joint IMF-World Bank Technical Assistance mission—which visited Colombo on February 20 – March 3, 2023 to assist the Ministry of Finance, Economic Stabilization, and National Policies (MoF) in developing a public debt management reform plan—made the following assessments and recommendations: • A new legal framework for public debt management should be introduced. The law would consolidate the existing laws, establish a new public debt management office, and define the governance and accountability framework for public debt management. The need for transparency would also be embedded in the PDM law, including annual reporting to Parliament on the progress in implementing the medium-term debt management strategy. • The new public debt management office should be established inside the MoF, with the appointment of a Director General overseeing the office comprising of front-, middle-, and back-offices in line with international best practices. Developing a medium-term debt management strategy approved by the Cabinet of Ministers will be critical to strengthen the operational independence of the public debt management office. • The new public debt management office should rationalize and strengthen the debt database management by unifying the functions and creating a streamlined system of debt recording, monitoring, and reporting to enhance debt transparency. A policy framework and control system for the issuance and management of guarantees and on-lending should be established, consistent with the government’s overall risk management framework. Following the recommendations of the technical assistance mission, the authorities have since drafted and submitted a new Public Debt Management Act to Parliament, which was enacted on June 18, 2024. The authorities are also in advanced stages of finalizing the Public Debt Management Regulations, which will be submitted to Parliament. The drafting of the Public Debt Management Guidelines, which defines the roles and responsibilities of the new Public Debt Management Office, is also in train. A new Director General has been appointed to head the Public Debt Management Office. With these actions, the stage is set for the establishment and operationalization of the Public Debt Management Office at the Ministry of Finance in Sri Lanka.
November 20, 2024
Islamic Republic of Mauritania: Technical Assistance Report-Customs Diagnostic and Needs Assessment Mission
Description: [This report is only available in French] The mission assessed the progress of the General Directorate of Customs, identified capacity building priorities and needs, and recommended improvements in the development of core customs functions.
November 15, 2024
Libya: Technical Assistance Report-Redesign of Income Tax Forms
Description: METAC assisted the Libyan Tax Authority in reviewing tax forms to enhance taxpayer data collection. The proposed data set will significantly expand existing information, improving the completeness of taxpayer records and greatly aiding the risk assessment process.
November 14, 2024
Pakistan: Technical Assistance Report-Improving Budget Practices
Description: Pakistan’s tight fiscal situation will require strong control over the budget in coming years. This report provides recommendations on steps to strengthen the country’s fiscal institutions to deliver a more credible budget, tighten its execution and prevent policy slippages. It also advises on how to digitalize the budget process to improve monitoring and reporting.
November 8, 2024
Vietnam: Technical Assistance Report-Report on Residential Property Price Index Mission (April 22-26, 2024)
Description: At the request of the Government Statistics Office (GSO), a technical assistance mission was conducted between April 22–26, 2024 to assist with the ongoing development of a Residential Property Price Index (RPPI). This was the fourth mission to assist the GSO with developing an RPPI and continues the progress made during a virtual mission held in 2021. The mission was funded by the Data for Decisions (D4D) Fund. In the absence of suitable administrative data on property transactions, the GSO has assessed the potential for using both a survey of property and sellers and online property listings to underpin the compilation of an RPPI. Recent taxation developments might increase the potential for using administrative data on property transactions in the future. While previously, these taxation data on property transactions were in paper format and suffered from under-reporting of transaction prices, electronic reporting of property transactions is gradually being extended to national coverage and legal changes might reduce the incidence of under-reporting of prices.
November 8, 2024
Colombia: Technical Assistance Report-Report on the Mineral Asset Accounts and Carbon Footprints Mission (May 20–24, 2024)
Description: A technical assistance (TA) mission was undertaken with the Departamento Administrativo Nacional de Estadística (DANE), Colombia between May 20-24, 2024. The objective of the mission was to support DANE in the compilation of updated energy and air emissions accounts, mineral and energy monetary asset accounts, and domestic carbon footprints. The tasks completed included the review of the scope and coverage of existing data sources and accounts, the identification of the new sets of information to be collected, and the review of the available methodological options for the compilation of the updated energy and air emissions accounts, mineral and energy monetary asset accounts, and domestic carbon footprints. An action plan for the compilation and release of the specified accounts and indicators was developed and agreed with the authorities.