The Global Report presents trends in public financial management (PFM) using Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) data. The report—which is only available online—contains data visualizations accompanied by short analyses and country examples. It gives an overview of the methodology used for assessing PFM performance, highlights key trends in PFM across seven key areas of the budget cycle, and presents ideas on how the data analysis and findings could influence future research on PFM. The report contains an overview of PEFA assessment findings from 2019 and presents four case studies: Argentina, Ethiopia, Ukraine, and West Bank and Gaza. It also showcases key findings from the initial application of the recently launched PEFA framework for assessing gender responsive public financial management.

• Countries on average perform better in preparing their budgets than executing them.
• Internal audit, management of fiscal risks, external audit, and scrutiny by Supreme Audit Institutions and the legislature remains the weakest areas of PFM.
• The budget preparation process, predictability of in-year resource allocation, internal controls on nonsalary expenditure, and debt management were the highest scoring areas.
• Gender considerations in the design, implementation, and evaluation of budget policies are not yet mainstreamed in most countries, though some countries have made important advances in this area.