The Ministry of Finance in Kuwait has recently taken a renewed interest in the PEFA assessment undertaken by World Bank in 2009 – so much so, that a “PEFA Committee” has been established within the Ministry. This Committee has now been working for some time on gaining a thorough understanding of the PEFA methodology and how the indicators were rated, as well as translating the Secretariat’s ‘Fieldguide’ into Kuwaiti (rather than ‘classical’) Arabic.
To take this process further, a four-day workshop, based on the Secretariat’s standard training material, but customized to focus on issues that emerged from the 2010 assessment, was presented by Phil Sinnett (former head of PEFA Secretariat) and Franck Bessette (an Arabic speaker, formerly on the staff of the Secretariat and now with the MENA region of the World Bank).
Following the training program, discussions were held with senior management in the Ministry, which suggest that a repeat (self-) assessment, led by members of the ‘PEFA Committee’ may take place in the not-too-distant future, in order to determine progress on the various PFM reforms currently underway.
