PSIA Newsletter # 1
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Newsletter #1
Dear colleague,
A couple of weeks ago (for some of you, a couple of months ago) you had indicated your interest in joining an Advisory Board of the EPIAM project, calling for the development of some standards, methodologies and tools that can be used for the Exante Poverty Impact Assessment of Macroeconomic Policies (EPIAM) in developing countries. Based on replies like yours, we now have a very impressive group of eminent development economists interested in the EPIAM project (please see the attached list).
Besides providing you with some updates on where we are with the EPIAM project, I would like to ask you for your suggestions and comments on how we can move forward with the initiative. Please note that I have also cc-ed this E-Mail to the possible members of an EPIAM Working Group, whereby I apologize if I have placed some of you into the wrong group as the definitions of Working Group and Advisory Board have changed over time.
Actions taken so far:
In January 2002, a draft of the Strategy Paper “Towards Poverty Reducing Macroeconomic Policies” had been sent to approximately 25 researchers, various MIMAP partners, and about 40 World Bank and IMF staff for comments. Based on comments received until April 2002, the final version of the Strategy Paper has then been posted on the New Rules website in May 2002. Since then, more researchers and staff of international organizations, including their evaluation offices have been informed about the initiative, further discussions have been hold with Bank and Fund staff, and most recently, all Executive Directors of the Bank and Fund have been informed about the initiative and asked for their feedback and comments.
Results/Suggestions/Impressions so far:
The most concrete suggestions has come from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), who is considering to organize (together with the New Rules for Global Finance Coalition) a one-day workshop/conference on “Perspectives and Tools for the Exante Poverty Impact Assessment of Macroeconomic Policies” (possibly in Jan/Feb 2003). Prof. Lance Taylor at the New School University is also considering to organizing a workshop on structural CGE models. Other, suggestions were (a) to commission a couple of papers on specific issues, which could then be discussed at a conference, (b) that it would be important to assess the impact of dominant macroeconomic policy suggestions on economic growth, which could be analyzed without CGE models, and (c) that capacity building would need to be a key component of the EPIAM project. Some Bank and Fund staff have expressed the wish that they would like to see more concrete terms of references for the EPIAM Working Group and Advisory Board before committing themselves, partly reflecting that some of these persons, especially at the World Bank, are already working on developing a variety of tools for Poverty & Social Impact Assessment (PSIA), though not necessarily concentrating on macroeconomic policies. Based on various discussions with Bank and Fund staff, my understanding is that (a) there is agreement within the Bank and the Fund that the Bank is the lead organization for PSIA, and (b) the Bank may not feel too comfortable to concentrate on the assessment of macroeconomic policies.
Possible additional future actions:
The following are only a few ideas, which I hope will stimulate comments and further suggestions (from both the members of Advisory Board and Working Group) on how to proceed with the EPIAM project, some of which are addressed in more detail in my Strategy Paper .
a) given the importance of the tools currently developed at the World Bank, especially the IMMPA, it might be useful to look into the assumptions and closures of these models;
b) accepting the notion that the impact of national macroeconomic polices is limited and/or predetermined by macroeconomic polices of other countries (especially the G-7), tools might need to be developed that could assess the impact of national macroeconomic policies under alternative international macroeconomic settings, and
c) tools might need to be developed that provide better linkages between macroeconomic policies, environmental degradation, and poverty.
Resources needed:
While the New Rules for Global Finance Coalition has initiated the EPIAM project, and remains committed to provide financial resources for possible future work, support would be needed from national and international developmental organizations, especially of organizations that provide macroeconomic policy suggestions. In late Summer 2002, it looked like that the Fund was interested in providing this leadership role, however, subsequent discussions referred to the Bank as the lead institution on PSIA. Anyway, given the resources needed to elevate the EPIAM project to a broader international initiative, it might be useful if a consortium of international organizations could take over the leadership of the EPIAM project. At that time, the interdependence of the Advisory Board might be crucial.
Draft Terms of References for Working Group and Advisory Board:
My current suggestion would be that members of the EPIAM Working Group could make recommendations on standards and methodologies, evaluate existing tools, modify/extend existing tools, and may even develop new tools. The EPIAM Advisory Board could review the work and recommendations of Working Group members. Originally, I was suggesting that it would be desirable if a core of the EPIAM Working Group could meet at least once a month in person. Thanks to your comments, I now believe that it might be more useful if specific tasks are allocated to specific members of the Working Group, whereby my understanding is that these researchers would need to be paid for their work as long as they are not paid staff of national or international organizations already working on these issues. I would also suggest that at some point in the future, the Advisory Board might only consist of independent researchers in order to assure the independence of the Advisory Board.
Complexities and Collaboration:
Finally, I am fully aware that the EPIAM project touches many difficult and complex issues, many of which are ideologically charged. However, I also believe that these can be overcome through the collaboration of many different people and organizations. To keep the discussion going, I encourage you to reply to everybody, especially if you have concrete suggestions. In any case, in January 2003, I will summarize all the replies received until end December 2002. The attached documents contain (1) the list of people interested in EPIAM project and (2) other EPIAM-related information, which might be of interest to some of you.
Thank you in advance, best wishes,
Bernhard G. Gunter
EPIAM Project Director
E-Mail: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
EPIAM: Standards, Methodologies and Tools for the Exante Poverty Impact Assessment of Macroeconomic Policies.
A Project initiated by the New Rules for Global Finance Coalition
Attachment 1: List of people interested in EPIAM project.
As of October 24, 2002, the following persons have indicated their interest to join a Working Group and/or an Advisory Board of the EPIAM Project/Initiative:
• Nicholas Adamtey, Researcher, ISODEC, Ghana (Working Group)
• Anselme Adégbidi, Prof. and Head of Economics Department in the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Abomey-Calavi, Republic of Benin; and Coordonnateur MIMAP-Benin (Working Group)
• Tony Addison, Deputy Director, WIDER (Advisory Board)
• Masood Ahmed, Deputy Director, PDR, IMF (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• Peter Baofu, Prof., USDA Graduate School (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• Keith Bezanson, Prof. and Director, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex University (Advisory Board)
• Graham Bird, Prof., University of Surrey (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• Francois Bourguignon, Prof., Delta; and Consultant, World Bank (Advisory Board)
• Giovanni Andrea Cornia, Prof., University of Florence (Advisory Board)
• Roy Culpeper, President and CEO, North-South Institute (Advisory Board)
• Lionel Demery, Lead Specialist, World Bank (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• Eugenio Diaz-Bonilla, Senior Research Fellow, IFPRI (Working Group)
• Nassir Djafari, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (FfW), Frankfurt, Germany (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• Augustin Fosu, Director of Research, African Economic Research Consortium (Advisory Board)
• Ricardo Ffrench-Davis, Principal Regional Advisor, ECLAC (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• Christiaan Grootaert, former World Bank Lead Economist (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• Sanjeev Gupta, Assistant Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF (Working Group)
• Lucia Hanmer, International Financial Institutions Dept, DFID (Advisory Board)
• Bob Huber, Senior Social Affairs Officer, DSPD/UNDESA (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• Eva Jespersen, Regional Advisor, Social Policy and Economic Analysis, East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office, UNICEF, Bangkok, Thailand (Advisory Board)
• M. Adil Khan, Chief, Socio-Economic Policy and Development Management Branch, DSPD/DESA, United Nations (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• Tony Killick, Senior Research Associate, ODI (Advisory Board)
• Michael Kremer, Prof., Harvard University (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• Shubh Kumar-Range, Senior Program Manager, Economic Change Poverty and Environment, of WWF-MPO (Advisory Board)
• Hans Löfgren, Senior Researcher, IFPRI (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• Warwick McKibbin, Prof., Australian National University (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• Terry McKinley, Human Development Economist, UNDP (Advisory Board)
• Rohinton Medhora, Vice-President, Program and Partnership Branch, IDRC (Advisory Board)
• Santosh Mehrotra, Senior Policy Advisor to the Human Development Report Office, UNDP (Advisory Board)
• Christian Morrisson, Senior Advisor, OECD, Paris (Advisory Board)
• Mustafa Mujeri, Project Leader, MIMAP-Bangladesh (Working Group)
• M.G. Quibria, Advisor, Operations Evaluations Department, Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines (Advisory Board)
• Basanta Kumar Pradhan, Chief Economist, National Council of Applied Economic Research, India (Working Group)
• Musunuru Rao, Senior Vice President, KCP Associates International (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• David Reed, Director, WWF-Macroeconomics Program Office (Advisory Board)
• Sherman Robinson, Director, Trade & Macroeconomics Division, IFPRI (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• David E. Sahn, Prof., Cornell University (Advisory Board)
• Randy Spence, Team Leader, International Development Research Centre (Advisory Board)
• Rodney Schmidt, Principal Researcher, North-South Institute (Working Group)
• Frances Stewart, Prof., Oxford University (Advisory Board)
• Servaas Storm, Prof., Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands (Working Group)
• Teresa Ter-Minassian, Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF (Working Group)
• Rolph van der Hoeven, Manager, Technical Secretariat, World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization, ILO (Advisory Board)
• Rob Vos, Deputy Rector and Prof., Institute of Social Studies, The Netherlands (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• John Whalley, Prof., University of Western Ontario and University of Warwick (Working Group and/or Advisory Board)
• Erinc Yeldan, Prof., Bilkent University (Working Group)
Attachment 2: EPIAM-related information (which might be of interest to some of you).
- Updates to Impact Evaluation Website
- Thematic Group on Poverty Impact Analysis, Monitoring and Evaluation
- Poverty Reduction Strategies and the Macroeconomic Policy Framework
- New study on the impact on poverty of trade liberalization
- Call for papers: International Conference on Policy Modeling
1. Updates to Impact Evaluation Website
You are invited to visit the updated Impact Evaluation website on PovertyNet at http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/impact/index.htm. In addition to topics on evaluation design and examples of sector specific evaluations, the updated site now includes topics on evaluation of community driven development, economy wide policies and program evaluation, and implementation issues in impact evaluation. You can also visit the Spanish language version of the Impact Evaluation website at http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/spanish/impact/index.htm
2. Thematic Group on Poverty Impact Analysis, Monitoring and Evaluation
The World Bank has also created a “Thematic Group on Poverty Impact Analysis, Monitoring and Evaluation” which holds brown bag lunch discussions, open also for non-Bank staff. If you would like to be added to their E-Mail list for announcements and invitations, please contact Ms. Aline Coudouel ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).
3. Poverty Reduction Strategies and the Macroeconomic Policy Framework
Prof. David L. Bevan and Prof. Christopher S. Adam (both, University of Oxford) have written a Draft Guidance Note on: “Poverty Reduction Strategies and the Macroeconomic Policy Framework (dated July 26 2000). From the introduction: There is now a wide consensus that poverty reduction strategies should move to centre stage in policy formulation more generally, and specifically in the design and implementation of macroeconomic policy. What is less clear is how this incorporation should be achieved. This note attempts to provide some guidance on this issue; it follows fairly closely the discussion in the IMF draft of July 12 2000, “Key Features of PRGF-Supported Programs”, though the ordering and emphases differ in the present note. Please let me know if you would like an electronic copy of this paper.
4. New study on the impact on poverty of trade liberalisation
Chris van der Borgh and Frans Bieckmann (prepared for NOVIB, the Netherlands) have written a review of the attention for the impact on poverty of trade liberalisation and the policy responses to mitigate or avoid poverty, in the (I) PRSPs and loan-related documents of eight countries (Cambodia, Georgia, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and Vietnam). Please let me know if you would like an electronic copy of this paper.
5. CALL FOR PAPERS: International Conference on Policy Modeling
The next International Conference on Policy Modeling (EcoMod2003) will take place in Istanbul, in the Hotel Conrad Istanbul, on July 3-5, 2003. You can submit your abstracts by e-mail to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Deadline for the abstracts is December 15, 2002. The goal of the conference is to promote the exchange of ideas among economists conducting quantitative analysis for policy and decision making in the public and private sector. Particular emphasis will be placed on econometric and applied general equilibrium modeling. The meeting will cover all areas of applied modeling for economics, finance and decision making in the government and business world.For more information, contact:
Prof. Ali H. Bayar,
Department of Applied Economics
Free University of Brussels
Avenue F. D. Roosevelt, 50, C.P. 140
B-1050 Brussels – BELGIUM
Phone: +32-2-650 4115 or +32-2-650 3988
Fax: +32-2-650 4137
Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: http://www.ecomod.net