The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was established in July 1944, during a United Nations conference in Bretton Woods, United States. Its mission is to safeguard financial stability and international monetary cooperation, as well as to address macroeconomic and financial issues that affect global stability. The IMF is governed by 188 member countries, and its operations are based in Washington, United States.
As part of its surveillance mandate, the IMF reviews countries’ economic policies and monitors economic and financial developments at the national, regional and global levels. It also provides technical and financial assistance to its member countries by strengthening their capacity to design and implement economic policy.
To this end, the Fund has established nine regional technical assistance centres across the Pacific and the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East and Central America. Five Regional Technical Assistance Centres (AFRITACs) have been created in Africa. Their main areas of intervention include public financial management, public debt management and the development of the government securities market, financial sector regulation, monetary policy, and economic and financial statistics (see: https://www.imf.org/external/np/exr/facts/fre/afritacf.htm).
