IMF | CEF

Target Audience: The training program on poverty measurement is specifically designed for officials and policymakers at the National Statistics Organizations (NSO), Ministries of Planning, Finance, Social and Labor Affairs, and related government think tanks of MENA countries. Countries where statistical capacity needs to be improved, and which are either in the early stages or in the process of implementing a household survey are especially encouraged to participate. This audience is targeted due to their roles in data management, analysis, and policy-making that require a deep understanding of household survey data and welfare measurement.

Qualifications: Participants are expected to be officials and policymakers from NSOs and Ministries. Participants should have a basic understanding of data collection, statistics, and be involved in the use of statistical data for policy-making. They should be in positions that would benefit from technical training in statistical software such as Stata. Prior knowledge would be welcome but not necessary.

Language: The course is conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation into Arabic.

Course Description: The course will review concepts and definitions of key welfare indicators such as the consumption aggregate, poverty line and headcount rate, inequality, and shared prosperity measures. It will outline the key steps of household survey design and implementation, including sampling, survey instruments, and data quality monitoring. The training will also have a hands-on session using Stata, a statistical software for data management and analysis, to familiarize participants with its functionalities, including data importing, cleaning, and analysis. Through real-world examples, the course will cover how a consumption aggregate is calculated from food and non-food components of household expenditure, and the necessary imputations to capture rent, subsidized goods, and spatial differences in prices. Using these concepts, the course will enable participants to calculate welfare measures at national and sub-national levels.

The training will also consist of interactive sessions among participants and trainers for focused country specific discussions on upcoming household surveys, labor force modules, and aspects of multi-dimensional poverty. The overarching goal would be to improve statistical capacity and create a basis for engagement on statistics that the Poverty team can build upon in future.

For additional information concerning the content of the course, please address your inquiries to Ms. Nayantara Sarma, Economist, World Bank, at: nsarma@worldbank.org

Target Audience: Junior to mid-level government officials tasked with surveillance of the financial sector, especially staff of the central bank, financial regulators, and other agencies that engage in macroprudential oversight.

Qualifications: Participants are expected to have a degree in economics or finance, preferably at the master’s level, or equivalent work experience; good quantitative skills; and proficiency in the use of computers to analyze data. It is strongly recommended that applicants have completed the online Financial Market Analysis (FMAx) course. Because many of the workshops use Microsoft Excel worksheets, familiarity with the basics of Excel is important.

Language: The course is conducted in English only. Due to the technical nature of the course, English proficiency is a prerequisite

Course Description: This course introduces participants to key concepts and tools used in the identification and assessment of financial sector vulnerabilities and sources of strength. The course materials provide a basic toolkit to assess financial sector risks and measure them against existing capital and liquidity buffers in the financial system. The discussions focus on the early identification of unwarranted macro-financial imbalances and the analysis of the transmission of financial distress across institutions, markets, and economic sectors, with the objective of reducing the likelihood and the severity of financial crises. A combination of lectures and hands-on workshops allows participants to apply essential risk assessment techniques.

Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:

• Measure the main risks facing banks (e.g., credit, market, funding) and their respective capital and liquidity buffers, from a systemic financial stability perspective.
• Design and perform basic stress tests of solvency and liquidity and interpret the results.
  
• Recognize the importance of nonbank financial intermediaries and their links to banks.
  
• Assess macro-financial linkages, including the links between the financial sector, the government, and the real economy, along with potential amplification mechanisms.
  
• Track the buildup of systemic risk and vulnerabilities associated with credit, real estate prices, leverage, balance sheet mismatches, and interconnectedness.
  
• Assess how shocks can amplify throughout the financial system, e.g., through adverse liquidity spirals or feedback effects between asset prices and leverage.

Target Audience: Mid-level to senior officials in central banks, regulatory agencies, supervisory authorities, ministries of finance, deposit insurance funds, and other agencies with responsibility for bank supervision, bank resolution, and the operation of financial safety nets.

Qualifications: Participants are expected to have experience in bank supervision, bank resolution (policy issues or operational experience) and/or depositor protection. 

Language: The course is conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation into Arabic.

Course Description: This course, presented by the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, provides a comprehensive overview of conceptual and operational issues related to the restructuring and resolution of weak banks. Among the topics discussed during the course are:

• Identification and supervision of weak banks: common causes of banking problems and how to identify them as well as early intervention tools and supervisory approaches for dealing with weak banks;
• Operational preparedness: institutional foundations of the financial safety net and inter-agency coordination; building blocks of effective resolution regimes (guided by the Financial Stability Board’s Key Attributes of Effective Resolution Regimes); recovery and resolution planning; initiatives to test operational preparedness; and the role of deposit insurance and depositor preference;
• Crisis containment: liquidity support, government guarantees, and exceptional administrative measures to stop persistent liquidity outflows;
• Bank restructuring and resolution: initiation of resolution proceedings; resolution options for systemically important and non-systemic banks; cross-border resolution; system-wide diagnostics and restructuring strategies; and policy considerations and instruments for public capital support;
• Dealing with distressed assets: market failures and policy reforms; approaches for resolving nonperforming loans—supervisory policies, insolvency and debt enforcement, distressed asset markets and the role of asset management companies.

Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:

• Explain the building blocks of crisis preparedness and management.
• Identify weak banks and devise strategies for dealing with them.
• Pinpoint key design features of effective resolution regimes and options for enhancing operational preparedness.
• Identify stabilization options in response to financial panic and design credible strategies for bank restructuring and resolution at an individual and system-wide level.
• Compare options for dealing with distressed assets.

Target Audience: This course is designed for public sector employees from departments and functions of macro-economic, planning, budgeting, accounting, treasury, and audit in countries for which a PEFA assessment is likely or with previous assessment that are more than 4 years, or no previous assessment. 

Qualifications: The targeted participants are public sector employees who had been or to be involved in using the PEFA ++[1] assessment framework. Female participation is highly encouraged for gender-balance.

Language: The course is conducted in Arabic.

Course Description: The course will be delivered in 2 parts:

Part 1: PEFA++ Training (3 days)

The objective of the training is to provide participants with the necessary skills to conduct PEFA++ assessments, interpret the results, and support Public Financial Management reforms at country level. The training will be conducted, in Arabic, over a period of 2.5 days[1] and will involve hands-on learning on the PEFA framework and related methodologies and guidance.

Part 2: Training on Development of PFM Reform Action Plan (PFM-RAP) (2 days)

The objective of the training is to provide participants with the necessary skills to develop a PFM Reform Action Plan (PFM-RAP) as a post-PEFA activity. The "GovEnable Framework” which is a problem-driven approach that supports government-led participatory approaches to reform identification and prioritization will be used for the PFM-RAP. The training will be conducted, in Arabic, over a period of 2 days.

For additional information concerning the content of the course, please address your inquiries to Ms. Mona El-Chami, Senior Governance Specialist, Word Bank, at: melchami@worldbank.org.

Target Audience: Mid- to Senior level banking supervisors in charge of supervision of banks.

Qualifications: Participants are actively involved in banking supervision and possess a strong understanding of bank regulation and supervision matters.

Language: The course is conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation into Arabic.

Course Description: This regional course, presented by the IMF Middle East Center for Economics and Finance (CEF) and the IMF – Middle East Regional Technical Assistance Center (METAC), aims to enhance the capacity of banking supervisors in assessing banks’ corporate governance and the effectiveness of board of directors, board committees and their relationship with risk management, compliance, shariah compliance, and internal audit functions. In so doing, the course will present international standard setters’ requirements on corporate governance, board responsibility, composition, qualification, independence, senior management responsibilities and risk communication within banks. It will discuss best practices to entrench corporate governance culture in the banking system and will share countries’ challenges in achieving this. The course will also explore ways in which blockages to effective supervision of corporate governance are addressed in practice. Case studies will be used to identify weaknesses, assess the fit and propriety of board and senior management and recommend remedial measures to correct deficiencies, forming a core element of the course.

Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, participants would be able to:

• Describe the key principles and concepts of good governance.
  
• Understand the role of board of directors and board committees.
• Understand the interdependencies of risk management, compliance and internal audit in fostering a good governance infrastructure.
• Assess the fit and propriety of board members and key senior management.
• Assess the effectiveness of corporate governance, identify weaknesses, and propose corrective measures.
• Address governance function with proportionality consideration and with different business contexts (Conventional, Islamic and State-owned Banks).
• Learn from implementation challenges of other countries’ experiences.

For additional information concerning the content of the course, please address your inquiries to Ms. Nehmat Hantas, Banking Regulation and Supervision Advisor, METAC, at:  nhantas@imf.org

Target Audience: Mid-level to senior officials in central banks and ministries of finance or economy who are directly involved in diagnosing the state of the macroeconomy and making projections.

Qualifications: Participants are expected to have an advanced degree in economics or equivalent experience, good quantitative skills, and proficiency in the use of Microsoft Excel. It is strongly recommended that applicants have completed the online Financial Programming and Policies, Part 1: Macroeconomic Accounts and Analysis (FPP.1x) or the online Macroeconomic Diagnostics (MDSx) course.

Language: The course is conducted in English only. Due to the technical nature of the course, English proficiency is a prerequisite.

Course Description: This course is designed to strengthen participants’ ability to comprehensively assess a country’s macroeconomic situation, including the current state of the economy; the stance of fiscal and monetary policy; financial stability; exchange rate misalignments; vulnerabilities in the different sectors; and the medium-term outlook, especially the sustainability of public and external debt.

The course emphasizes practical tools for use in day-to-day macroeconomic analysis and relies on case studies relevant to the region where the course is given to illustrate how these tools are applied and how they can contribute to the policymaking process. 

Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:

• Analyze potential output, calculate output gaps, and diagnose the outlook for the economy;
• Assess the stance of current fiscal, monetary, exchange rate, and financial policies;
• Assess macro-financial linkages, including through the analysis of financial sector soundness indicators;
• Assess the medium-term prospects of the economy, especially the sustainability of public and external debt; and
• Identify possible external and internal economic risks and vulnerabilities to economic growth and identify policies to address them.

Target Audience: Mid- to senior-level banking supervisors.

Qualifications: Participants are expected to be involved in banking regulation and supervision (microprudential only.

Language: The course is conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation into Arabic.

Course Description: This regional course, presented by the IMF-CEF and the IMF Financial Supervision and Regulation Division of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department (MCMFR), aims at strengthening banking supervisors’ skills and capabilities in methods and tools for risk-based supervision (RBS) of the banking sector. The course begins by introducing the RBS approach and challenges for effective implementation of RBS in prudential regulations and supervisory processes. The focus then turns into presenting RBS assessment methodologies of banks’ financial soundness, with highlights on governance and risk management frameworks, as well as various risk domains (credit, liquidity, market, interest rate, operational, and climate-related risks), leveraging supervisory bank-rating models for illustration. Through a mix of lectures, practical case studies, and interactive Q&A and quizzes, the course provides guidance on assessing a bank‘s risk profile in view of deciding adapted supervisory priorities and early intervention measures to address weaknesses.

Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, participants should be able to:

• Understand the approach and methodology of risk-based banking supervision.
• Implement a risk-based and forward-looking assessment of a bank’s risk profile that would result in early identification of material risk issues.
• Determine appropriate preventive and corrective supervisory action aimed at addressing identified weaknesses in individual banks.
• Evaluate the existing approach to risk-based banking supervision in their respective jurisdictions in view of enhancing supervisory effectiveness.
• Incorporate the risk-based approach into supervisory objectives, action plans, organization, and processes within their respective authorities.

For additional information on the content of the course, please address your inquiries to Mr. Alexis Boher, Senior Financial Sector Expert, MCMFR, at aboher@imf.org.

Target Audience: Policymakers’ aides and senior-level officials in ministries of finance, economy, and planning, central banks, forecasting units, and budget departments.

Qualifications: Participants are expected to have experience and basic background in economics, fiscal policy and budgeting.

Language: The course is conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation into Arabic.

Course Description: This five-day course presented by the Middle East Technical Assistance Center (METAC), is tailored to deepen the understanding of policymakers’ aides and other senior officials of certain core institutional, policy, and global aspects to help sharpen their strategic thinking and forecasting skills. It aims at bringing together senior officials from various public entities connected to the macro-fiscal and macroeconomic planning from ministries of finance, economy, planning, and central banks.  This is an in-person only training. The program will allow participants to:

• Learn and discuss strategic aspects affecting the overall economic and macro-fiscal policymaking and planning;
• Debate the institutions of decision making and interrelated internal and external parameters driving policy and decision choices towards building a sustainable coherent policy-mix and conduct plausible planning;
• Explore selected imminent global policy issues and their implications on participants’ domestic policy choices and forecasts;
• Learn about a number of best practices in the policy and crisis management domains;
• Engage in a crisis management simulation exercise, derived from a real case-study;
• Review selected core linkages between fiscal policy and other macroeconomic parameters affecting the medium term-fiscal framework; and
• Discuss policy options, budgeting and selected topics of regional interest.

Tools:  This program will encompass three main activities: lectures, roundtable discussions, and hands-on workshops. Nonetheless, the core philosophy of the program places a strong emphasis on stimulating challenging debates and encouraging interactive peer exchanges.

Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, participants will:

• Sharpen their strategic thinking and analytical capabilities to help them in shaping their countries' economic vision, navigating challenges in both routine and crisis situations, assessing the overall policy mix, analyzing the medium-term macroeconomic and fiscal frameworks from a strategic perspective;
• Think more strategically and comprehensively about fiscal policy and budgeting;
• Better understand certain core elements of how fiscal policy - within a consistent policy mix - can be more effective in attaining key government objectives, including, inclusive and sustainable growth, macro-stability, and economic efficiency;
• Analyze the impact of external and domestic developments on fiscal and economic sustainability and policy choices; and
• Build a new understanding about the strategic roles of forecasting units in supporting informed decision making and policy choice, and the importance of inter and intra institutional collaboration in the forecasting process.

For additional information concerning the content of the course, please address your inquiries to Mr. Yasser Sobhi, Public Financial Management Advisor, METAC, at: ysobhi@IMF.org

Target Audience: Government officials involved in policy or technical level with issues related to Trade and Environment.

Qualifications: Candidates should be directly involved with trade-related environmental policy or assessing the trade effects of environmental policies and should ideally have participated in trade and/or environmental discussions in international/multilateral fora.

Language: The course is conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation into Arabic.

Course Description: The course is designed to assist participants from the region to consolidate knowledge of the trade and environment nexus and on-going work at the WTO on how trade, trade policy and the multilateral trading system can contribute to efforts to address environmental challenges such as climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss.

The programme will include lectures, practical exercises, and provision of relevant material by the WTO Secretariat, and may include contributions from other relevant international organizations, as per availability. Participants will also contribute directly to the programme through experience sharing exercises.

For additional information concerning the content and admission to WTO courses offered at the CEF, please address your inquiries to Mr. Sajal Mathur at: sajal.mathur@wto.org