| IMF Has $52M For South Sudan
After Inner City Press Asked of Cameroon and
Ivory Coast
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon Video
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SDNY COURTHOUSE,
Nov 11 – When the
International Monetary Fund
addressed sub Saharan Africa
on October 21, Inner City
Press posed questions on
Cameroon and on Cote d'Ivoire.
Inner City Press
asked the IMF's Abebe Aemro
Selassie, Director, African
Department: "On Cameroon, in
light of the October 21
announcement of additional
COVID-related aid, what
safeguards are in place to
engage a lack of corruption in
distribution, and to prevent
the torture which many human
rights groups allege?"
His answer
involved assurances that the
beneficial owners of companies
getting government contracts,
for COVID and otherwise,
should be made public. Video here.
Now on
November 11 from the IMF on
South Sudan, this: "The
Executive Board of the
International Monetary Fund
(IMF) today approved a
disbursement of SDR 36.9
million (about US$52.3 million
or 15 percent of its SDR
quota) to South Sudan under
the Rapid Credit Facility
(RCF) . This is the first Fund
supported financial assistance
provided to South Sudan since
it joined the Fund in
2012. The disbursement
will help finance South
Sudan’s urgent balance of
payments needs, contain the
fiscal impact of the shock and
will provide critical fiscal
space to maintain
poverty-reducing and
growth-enhancing
spending. Prior to the
COVID-19 pandemic, South Sudan
had achieved significant
progress due to improved
political stability and an
uptick in global oil prices.
Economic growth rebounded,
inflation declined, and the
exchange rate stabilized.
However, the pandemic and oil
price shock created severe
economic disruption, leading
to deterioration in the fiscal
and external balances, and a
sharp decline in growth,
reversing some early gains
from political stability.
South Sudan economy is
projected to contract 3.6
percent in FY20/21, about 10
percentage points below the
pre-pandemic baseline.
The authorities have committed
to public financial management
reforms, transparency and
accountability to ensure that
the RCF resources are used
appropriately and for their
intended purpose.
Following the Executive Board
discussion, Mr. Mitsuhiro
Furusawa, Deputy Managing
Director and Acting Chair,
issued the following
statement: 'The COVID-19
pandemic has severely affected
South Sudan and reversed early
gains from political
stability.'"
Back in
October, Inner City Press also
asked about Cote d'Ivoire,
where IMF alumni Ouattara is
running for a third term. The
answer was largely praising
Cote d'Ivoire economic
diversity. Here's
the transcript:
MR. VILKAS:
Thank you. The next
question is also now through
Webex. It's Matthew Lee
who wants to ask
questions. Matthew, do
you hear
us?
MR. LEE:
Thanks a lot. I wanted
to know, I saw yesterday, the
announcement of continued
disbursement to Cameroon and
obviously it is a country in
need, but there are a lot of
issues that have risen, not
only about human right issues,
or people that have fled the
country due to conflict in the
northwest and southwest, but
also some alleged corruption
in the distribution of
COVID‑19 aid. So, I'm
wondering, if you can, kind
of, as you can say, how does
-- how do the general
principals of ensuring that
this aid actually helps
people? How are they
implemented, generally and
specifically in
Cameroon?
And just finally, on Côte
d'Ivoire there's controversy
of your alumni Alassane
Ouattara. Without
getting into the politics of
that, what's a been the impact
of the pandemic on Côte
d'Ivoire and what are your
views on its prospects going
forward? Thanks a
lot.
MR.
SELASSIE: Thanks.
On Cameroon, of course,
conditions remain very
difficult socially, and
economically as a result of
the pandemic. And
yesterday, actually we had --
we went to the Board for
disbursements there. On
almost all of our operations
with countries that we've been
doing in the context of the
Rapid Credit Facility, we have
been asking the authorities
to, number one, explain what
the resources are being used
to. And then, number
two, use their institutions,
and if their institutions are
not strong enough, external
auditors, to show that those
resources have been used for
the intended purpose. I
think already, you know -- and
also, sorry a third element of
this is that beneficiary
owners of the companies that
are being awarded contracts
are
published.
So already, you know,
yesterday there was some
reporting, if you look at the
staff report on Cameroon, on
the, you know, on how the
resources from the first
disbursement were used.
And also, of course, you know,
the beneficial owners of
companies for those
benefits. So, there's
already some reporting.
And this is something that we
are working diligently to get
into the public
information.
We strongly, strongly believe
that not only is governance
important, you know, for
countries benefit, but also,
what we can do is bring about
a lot of transparency in terms
of how resources are
used. This is a core
function that we do through
our work in helping certain
countries public finance
management systems, but at
times like this, I think when
resources are being provided
quickly. It's really
important also that, you know,
there is transparency in how
these resources are being
used.
We want this information to be
in the public domain so that
civil society organizations,
anti-corruption agencies can
all scrutinize how these
resources are being used and
this is an area of what we are
very, very diligently,
following on. And that's
our contribution to making
sure that that there continues
to be improved
governance.
SELASSIE:
So, on Côte d'Ivoire you know,
the WAEMU region more broadly
has seen even within the
African context of limited
infection levels the WAEMU
overall has seen even lower,
you know, at the lower end of
infection rates. So, in
terms of the direct infection
numbers, even controlling for
testing being low, it seems
that the number of COVID cases
has remained low. So
that is very encouraging, and
we've also seen overall in the
WAEMU fairly strong economic,
somewhat stronger economic
outcomes than elsewhere in the
region. On account of a
bit more diversified economic
structures that countries
have. But again, you
know, even there, we are
looking at very anemic or even
negative real per capita
growth rates, including in
Côte d'Ivoire. So, the
conditions have remained
fairly weak and they continue
to you know, much of what I
was saying earlier, the policy
challenges remain as
challenging as elsewhere.
Earlier in
the week, Inner City Press
asked the IMF: "What is the
IMF's assessment of the
turmoil in Kyrgyz Republic?
Can or will the IMF to do
anything to assist, including
on continued COVID-19 response
as well as debt to China /
Eximbank?"
His answer,
interim video here,
recounted the IMF's
pre-turmoil assistance to
Kyrgyzstan. here.
Inner City
Press also asked, "On Yemen,
what is the status of the use
of the new riyal banknotes
printed by the Central Bank in
Yemen, and any actions taken
by the IMF?" and, when called
on by video for a follow-up,
about the Nagorno Karabakh
conflict between Azerbaijan
and Armenia. Video on
YouTube here.
On the
latter, Jihad Azour cited the
IMF's Technical Assistant center
set for Almaty, Kazakhstan
and said the IMF joins in
calls for a ceasefire (which
have been mouthed by but not
followed up on by the
UNresponsive UN). We'll have
more on this.
***
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