THe IMF and Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers

From their Web site...

The IMF is an international organization of 185 member countries. It was established to

• promote international monetary cooperation, exchange stability, and orderly exchange arrangements;
• Foster economic growth and high levels of employment; and
• Provide temporary financial assistance to countries to help ease balance of payments adjustment. (See Purposes of the IMF in the Articles of Agreement.)

The work of the IMF is of three main types.

• Surveillance involves the monitoring of economic and financial developments, and the provision of policy advice, aimed especially at crisis-prevention.


• The IMF also lends to countries with balance of payments difficulties, to provide temporary financing and to support policies aimed at correcting the underlying problems; loans to low-income countries are also aimed especially at poverty reduction.


• Third, the IMF provides countries with technical assistance and training in its areas of expertise. Supporting all three of these activities is IMF work in economic research and statistics.

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What makes the IMF such a great source for the KOA is their Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP).

Before a country can request debt relief, it must open its books, and the World Bank and the IMF invest a bunch of money in research, resulting in a report that includes a specific set of Poverty Reduction Goals (PRG) for that country.

They also publish a ton of papers, with great, reliable data.

Go here to see if your country has a PSRP
-Editor

The IMF Country Data Link