Box 14: Implementation of Public Financial Management Reforms in Africa
Analysis of recent quantitative and qualitative data on public financial management (PFM) system characteristics and reform initiatives in 31 African countries highlights three themes: (i) Budgets are made better than they are executed, (ii) Practice lags behind creation of processes and laws, and (iii) Actor concentration pays.
x The first theme relates to the observation that budget preparation processes are comparatively stronger than budget execution and oversight processes across all African countries. In PFM jargon, this is commonly presented as “upstream processes are stronger than downstream processes.”
x The second theme is more nuanced, showing across all process areas that African PFM systems generally suffer from implementation deficit—laws and processes may be in place but seldom affect actual behavior. The theme
reflects a new institutional differentiation between de jure and de facto reform and is shown in the words of one recent diagnostic, “Legislation and procedures have been approved……(but) implementation has not been achieved.”
x The third theme offers even more specificity, suggesting that processes are stronger when narrower, concentrated sets of actors are involved in implementation. Processes are weaker where they involve multiple players, especially outside of central PFM entities like the Budget Department or Treasury.
Source: Andrews 2010.
This dynamic, with respect to implementation, reinforces the need to move quickly on capacity building across ministries and at all levels of the system. The PFM strategy recognizes both the importance and the challenge of developing sustainable capacity—including enhancing staff skills, introducing computing tools, business process reengineering, and change management—and a number of development partners are prepared to provide both financial and technical support for a comprehensive capacity building program tied to the PFM reform strategy. But international experience shows also that such capacity development strategies and programs also need very careful preparation to be effective. Particular attention needs to be paid to the role of foreign technical assistance and to making sure that it is focused on strengthening local capacity, not substituting for it. It is also clear that the impact of training programs for government officials and technical support can be greatly enhanced if they are complemented by broader organizational and civil service reforms.