An IMF Course on vulnerability diagnostics

The course on Vulnerability Diagnostics (VDS) was delivered in Vienna during the period May 8-19, 2023. This was the first in-person delivery of the VDS course since the pandemic and was attended by 29 participants (including 14 women) from 14 countries, representing central banks and ministries of finance.

The course aimed at honing participants’ ability to assess fiscal, financial, and external vulnerabilities in an integrated fashion, using several diagnostic tools and methods to capture tail risks. It assumes relevance given recent developments in global economy amid evolving challenges in the post-COVID environment. Sessions were organized into a sequence of overlapping short lectures and workshops to emphasize interconnectedness and spillovers among sectors. To promote engagement and active learning, the course was highly interactive, including through games, review sessions, and group projects aimed at assessing the building vulnerabilities in selected countries from the region.

The course has drawn great interest and engagement among participants. Together with counselors’ efforts to encourage discussion, this helped achieve significant and broadly shared learning gains which were tangible in the high quality of the end-of-course group presentations. The feedback received indicate a wide range of potential applications of the tools discussed. These include elaborating risk scenarios reflecting challenges in the post-Covid environment, adapting the workshop files to own country data, and informing decision taking.

Moez Souissi, Senior Economist, Institute for Capacity Development, IMF