The agreement, signed on August 21, will see the two agencies work together on capacity development, including through the IMF’s technical assistance centres that help countries develop policies to boost growth.

IMF deputy managing director Carla Grasso said the deal had been reached at a very important time following the Financing for Development conference in Addis Ababa and ahead of the next month’s Sustainable Development Goals conference in New York and the climate change conference in Paris starting in November.
“I am very happy that today we are joining forces on capacity development in order to tackle global economic challenges in the context of the post-2015 development agenda,” Grasso added.

Charles North, from USAID’s Bureau for Economic Growth, Education, and Environment, added the department would continue to channel its collective efforts “toward sustainable development, cultivate meaningful collaboration and achieve progress in cooperation with our partners in developing nations”.

Under the agreement, USAID will continue to support the development of the IMF’s Middle East Regional Technical Assistance Centres, one of the fund’s nine regional centres. These help over 100 member countries strengthen their capacity to design and implement policies that promote growth and reduce poverty.