Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability: Assessing Public Financial Management Performance and Influencing Reform Processes

Abstract

The Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Secretariat, in cooperation with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank, organized a 3-day event in February 2017 to explore and discuss experiences and achievements of the PEFA program and its influence on public financial management (PFM) reform in Asia and the Pacific. The Practitioners Forum and Training were held to coincide with the first anniversary of the launch of the upgraded PEFA 2016 framework for measuring PFM performance. The forum highlighted the rich experience of countries in Asia and the Pacific in managing PEFA assessments and in using the results of PEFA assessment reports as an input to governments’ PFM reforms plans and to monitor its implementation. This brief will describe what PEFA is, give a background on why the PEFA program was established, the evolution of the PEFA framework, and the key characteristics of the upgraded PEFA 2016 framework, as well as an overview of key lessons learned in using PEFA in Asia and the Pacific.