IMF Intensifying Efforts to Boost Staff Diversity, Experience

IMF aiming to improve diversity at senior levels

Female staff reject depiction of IMF workplace as hostile

Shafik says Fund focused on active work agenda, global recovery, plus euro zone, Middle East

Following the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn as Managing Director, there has been increased scrutiny of the IMF’s work environment, its treatment of women, and its code of conduct.

In an interview with the IMF’s Archana Kumar, Shafik—the IMF’s newest member of the management team—discusses the IMF and its internal work culture and what is being done to promote diversity. She also gives an overview of the IMF’s most pressing challenges at a time when the global recovery is facing headwinds from continued uncertainty in the euro area, the lack of strong job creation in advanced economies, and risks of overheating in several emerging market countries.

Nemat Shafik assumed the position of IMF Deputy Managing Director on April 11, 2011. A national of Egypt, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Shafik has a global reputation in fields ranging from emerging markets, international development, the Middle East and Africa, to the financial sector. She brings to the IMF a wealth of experience in policymaking, management, and academia.

IMF Survey online: Although you have been working at the IMF for only two months, what are your impressions of the Fund as a workplace?

Shafik: I always knew that the IMF was famous for having technically excellent staff, but I have to say they are even more impressive up close. It has been a real pleasure to work with so many talented people.

From the outside looking in, you have the impression that the IMF is a monolith with a very single-minded view of the world. When you are inside the Fund, what is really striking is how active the internal debate is. One of the most interesting things for me has been to watch the internal review process whereby policy documents and country documents are cleared, and to see how vigorous the debate is internally as different parts of the organization argue their corner. And that kind of environment of internal challenge is really something I was not expecting.

I think the third thing is the issue of the work environment for women. I know that there have been allegations that the IMF is an environment that is hostile to women. That certainly has not been my experience and that certainly has not been the experience of the about 700 women who recently wrote to The...