Sudd Institute: Reengagement with Key International Financial Institutions

[John Ashworth]

Attached please find a new paper from the Sudd Institute entitled "It
takes a Village to Raise a Child: South Sudan’s Reengagement Strategy
with Key International Financial Institutions" by James Alic Garang,
02/08/2022.

Publication Summary

On July 29, 2022, the IMF Executive Board concluded the Article IV
consultation with the Republic of South Sudan, and extended the
Staff-Monitored Program (SMP), which will allow the authorities to
deliver on the remaining structural benchmarks. Accordingly, the
Revitalized Agreement on the Resolution of the Conflict in South Sudan
(R-ARCSS) has enabled the country to focus on its broader strategy to
strengthen economic institutions and reengage the international
community, including the International Monetary Fund and World Bank,
among others. South Sudan’s reengagement strategy remains a key
pillar, and it enabled the country to access emergency support during
the pandemic. This led to two disbursements under the Rapid Credit
Facility (RCF-1) in November 2021 for about $53 million and in April
2021 for $174 (RCF-2). It also led to concurrent approval of the SMP
in April 2021, and the current efforts to continue strengthening
relations.

This increased engagement with international financial institutions
(IFIs) is associated with several aspects. Specifically, the role of
the leadership and country ownership in advancing reform agenda
features significantly. The leadership we have in mind remains
broad-based and analogous to the African proverb that states: “it
takes a village to raise a child.” While the South Sudanese economy
remains sluggish, especially from the legacy of the past conflicts, we
submit that a number of lessons can be drawn from this marked level of
reengagement with the IFIs. The latter view is the key objective of
this Weekly Review.

This Weekly Review proceeds as follows. Section 2 provides an overview
of the political economy considerations, and a snapshot of the
satisfactory performance under the SMP. Section 3 delineates what
objectives the foreign exchange (FX) market reforms have achieved, and
what remains unfinished; Section 4 provides lessons that can be
gleaned from this reengagement strategy. Finally, Section 5 concludes
the Weekly Review.

https://www.suddinstitute.org/publications/show/62e4b8efbd187

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