Ibis book was written as part of the work of the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Program, a partnership of the World Bank; the European Commission; the International Monetary Fund; the Strategic Partnership with Africa; and several bilateral donor agencies, including those of France, Norway, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

This study compares and contrasts the various instruments and approaches used by these organizations to assess and reform public expenditure management systems in developing and transitional countries. It finds weaknesses in these instruments, including overlap and duplication in their technical scope and coverage, as well as insufficient or inconsistent coverage in some areas. In addition, countries often are subjected to multiple assessments and multiple missions by the donors, which can impose heavy transactions costs on government agencies. Furthermore, the instruments have a variety of objectives-fiduciary, surveillance, and capacity building-which are divergent and potentially conflicting.

This study recommends a new approach that is country led, multidonor, medium term in orientation, focused on better management of the budget, and supplemented by donor aid funds, as a key mechanism to reduce poverty and attain other policy goals. It provides concrete and practical recommendations for achieving four important objectives:

Streamlining the coverage of instruments to avoid unnecessary duplication

Enhancing collaboration between donors, governments, and other stakeholders

Providing a more complete, accurate, and timely assessment of fiduciary risk

Improving the ultimate development impact of assessment and reform work

This book will be of interest to development practitioners in the area of public finance, finance ministers, policy analysts, and students and scholars of international development.

THE WORLD BANK

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