Macroeconomics and Fragile States: Strengthening Resilience to Exit Fragility

Presented by International Monetary Fund

This sessions discusses the importance of macroeconomic support for fragile and conflict-affected states (FCS) to strengthen their resilience and exit fragility and, how it can best address the unique challenges FCS face while building on the complementarities between the approaches of the WBG FCV Strategy and the proposed IMF FCS Strategy. In particular, the panel discussion provides an opportunity to demonstrate the commitment of the close partnership between the two sister organizations in their FCS support. Within that context, the IMF was scheduled to have approved its FCS Strategy in February 2022. Therefore, holding a joint IMF-WBG panel discussion with Ministers of Finance from FCS presents a timely moment of international relevance, because it advances the global debate on helping fragile and conflict affected states recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and coping with the increasing impacts of climate change while addressing macroeconomic challenges.

Macroeconomic stability and inclusive economic growth are essential to reducing fragility and promoting resilience. Macroeconomic policy is one out of many interlinked variables that can play a positive role – and in some cases, it may not be the most decisive one as political, military or security factors critically influence the outcomes of engagement. Strong and accountable institutions that effectively implement macro-fiscal and monetary policies can play an essential role in preventing state fragility from turning into failure.

The close IMF and World Bank partnership is critical in the comprehensive support to fragile and conflict-affected states. The positive impact of the joint work on coordination, policy and financing was demonstrated again in the international response to COVID-19 in FCS, launching the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI) in which 19 of 36 eligible FCS have requested to participate since its inception in May 2020.

Speakers:

- Franck Bousquet, Deputy Director, IMF
- Soukeyna Kane, Director of the FCV Group, World Bank Group
- Katrin Wiegmann, Deputy Director General, ICRC
- Sarah Frances Cliffe, Director, NYU CIC
- Sanjeev Gupta, Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development
- Amatalalim Ali Mohamed Al-Soswa, Consultant, World Bank Group