The Argentina PEFA story tells how the PEFA Assessment was needed to inform the Government on its reform initiatives and helped establish the current status in a country that has never applied the PEFA methodology before.
Indeed, the PEFA assessment framework plays an important role to assess and reinforce public expenditure efficiency to guide resources where they are most needed.
The pandemic had urged to respond to new PFM demands and speed the process of reaching new countries to apply the PEFA Framework and PEFA new products to help countries take relevant measures for sustainable recovery.
PEFA Secretariat kept working virtually with partners, governments and clients to ensure that the PEFA products and services correspond to the needs during the challenging circumstances.
PEFA Climate, a new supplementary tool assessing climate responsive PFM, addresses the global policy objective to mainstream climate change into public finances. It will identify best practices and help governments make their PFM systems more responsive to climate change. The piloting started in July 2020 and the first PEFA Climate Assessment is ongoing in Samoa. Other assessments are under preparation in Southern Europe, Eastern Africa, Middle East and Latin America.
The Agile PEFA, a simplified alternative assessment process, could help governments to assess their PFM systems quicker during COVID. Tonga was the first AgilePEFA in August 2020.The Agile approach is currently applied in Sudan, Cook Islands and Mongolia. Interested teams can consult the AgilePEFA Guidance and Report Template.
PEFA supports the improvement of PFM at subnational level with the PEFA Guidance for Subnational Governments which includes a supplementary module on service delivery. This new guidance has already been used in different settings: Hunan province in China, Mexico City, Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. Assessments are ongoing in the Brussels region and the province of San Juan in Argentina.
Good examples of PEFA applied at Subnational level are the PEFAs in four German Municipalities and Georgia (Contribution to Georgia’s PFM Reform at Subnational Government Level).
The recovery from the pandemic also requires a stronger emphasis on gender equality in public finances. The PEFA Gender Responsive PFM Framework highlights relevant gender responsive PFM practices in line with key stages of the budget cycle. A Brochure GRPFM – What you Need to Know. gives an overview of the Framework. Eight countries applied the PEFA GRPFM Two reports are published (Tonga and Norway).
New products were presented during a Virtual Open House in October 2020 and are available to PFM users in English, French, and Spanish.
How does PEFA contribute to PFM improvements? The PEFA Handbook Volume IV - Using PEFA to Support PFM Improvement provides guidance on how to use PEFA assessments, among other diagnostics and other analytical reports, to develop and sequence PFM reform initiatives. A PEFA Blog on How PEFA could Help Countries to Develop their PFM Reform Strategy shows the lessons learned from applying the guidance in Peru, Tonga, Fiji, West Bank and Gaza.
New developments in 2021 include the launch of the Global PFM Report, the Stocktaking of PFM Diagnostic Tools, the new round of annual PEFA Research competition, and a PEFA e-learning course.
Blogs show the challenges that COVID 19 created for Public Financial Management: The Use of PEFA Reports to Assess the Readiness of PFM Systems to Respond to COVID-19 Challenge and Public Financial Management in the Post-COVID World .
PFM users can find information on PEFA, PFM initiatives, new products, stories… on the PEFA Website: www.pefa.org
