By Andrea Shalal

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The International Monetary Fund stated on Friday that it continues to build support for a Resilience and Sustainability Trust proposal. This trust would enable richer countries channel IMF funds to help countries in crisis. However, the Fund hopes to have the instrument operational next year.

Officials from the IMF have raced to gain support for the trust that Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s chief, suggested in June. This would enable aid to be provided to low-income countries not covered by the Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust.

While the IMF urges its wealthier members to loan or donate their part of $650billion in new issued Special Drawing Rights, (SDR), to poor countries, others say that this trust goes beyond the IMF’s purview.

Ceyla Pavarbasioglu (IMF strategy director) and Uma Rajakrishnan (her deputy), published a blog on Friday. They stated they hope to move forward on Resilience and Sustainability Trust during the next week’s IMF and World Bank annual meetings.

It is not easy to build consensus; it can take time. They wrote that creative solutions were needed to overcome differences. “We are confident that with the international community’s support, the RST is one such innovative solution which could become operational in just over a year.”

According to them, the RST proposed would increase economic sustainability and resilience, particularly in low-income and small-income countries.

According to them, members will agree on the goals of the funding. These could include climate and pandemic preparedness, as well as other “worthy global policy goals.”

The trustees needed to have liquidity available for creditors who had to channel their SDRs, if there was a balance to pay. They also required adequate credit risk protection to the donors.

They stated that they had proposed a multi-layered credit protection system with financial buffers and policy safeguards.

RST lending will likely be in addition to an IMF-supported regular program and would reap the benefits of strong policy safeguards.

According to them, details are still being worked on regarding the trust’s size, eligibility criteria, conditionality and lending terms as well as the financial architecture.

They stated that they continue to work closely with international financial institutions and the World Bank to make sure the RST forms part of an overall strategy for international assistance.