SDGs and PEFA

 

The Sustainable Development Goals are a call for action by all countries – poor, rich and middle-income – to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. They recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection.The UN Secretariat, through its Division for Sustainable Development of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA-DSD), launched Partnerships for SDGs – an online platform to create partnerships engagement in support of 17 sustainable development goals and 169 targets. They are integrated and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental. The Goals and targets will stimulate action over the next 15 years in areas of critical importance for humanity and the planet. The SDG targets and indicators are published on the WBG Data Portal.

The general Goal 16 calls for “promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and building effective, accountable institutions at all levels.” /Peace, Justice and Strong institutions/.The first indicator of the target 16.6 “Develop effective, accountable and transparent institutions at all levels”, is 16.6.1: Primary government expenditures as a percentage of original approved budget. In 2016 PEFA Secretariat joined the initiative with the task to provide information and data for 16.6.1 Indicator, that corresponds to PI-1 indicator included in PEFA Framework. It is considered that monitoring this indicator will:

  • show the progress of the countries’ PFM performance that will support the SDG-16;
  • prove that the governmental budgets are realistic and implemented as intended;
  • give a highlight of the results of the PFM systems in terms of actual revenues, expenditures and fiscal deficit by comparing them to the original plans and approved budget;
  • help to monitor the progress in strengthening the PFM systems and planning reforms.

The PEFA Secretariat was involved through the following activities:

16.6.1 Data Collection

Raw Data collection for SDG Indicator 16.6.1 and reporting to the UN via DECIS, having expertise in data requirements and calculation of the variance.  Until 2019 Data for 10 years period for 108 countries was collected from PEFA Reports and from the WB country economists. The next project stage is to enhance the data collection for more countries and fill the gaps in the existing data set.

The database for SDG 16.6.1. is available on the WB Data Portal and could be displayed as graphs for 108 countries or downloaded.

SDG Link

         

              Blog on Credible Budgets

Creating a  Blog “Credible government budgets are needed to achieve Sustainable Development Goals”, that is looking into:

  • The importance for the governments to implement their budgets as approved with only small deviations in terms of overall expenditure, revenues and allocations between programs;
  • What do PEFA reports say about Budget credibility at National and Sub-national levels;
  • Sharing Partners blogs and ideas.

            WB Atlas Publications

             Atlas 2017                     SDG Atlas 2018

WB SDG Atlas Publications: PEFA Data for Budget Reliability Indicator, corresponding to PI 16.6.1  was presented in the 2017, 2018, 2019 issues of the SDG Atlas, organized by the WB Data Group, presenting summary of PEFA Data and analysis of budget credibility at National and Sub-National Levels.