More information on the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Framework (PEFA)

Following the publication of a Voices&Views on PEFA, please find below some additional videos for those who are seeking more information.

In Bolivia, PEFA was initiated to great success with the clear purpose of diversifying the sources of finance and reducing transaction costs during public credit operations with multi-lateral agencies, said Mr Roger Edwin Rojas, Vice-Minister of Treasury and Public Credit in Bolivia.

He stressed that the PEFA process initiated in 2009 lead to a 100 million USD increased budget support from the World Bank

T.K Balakrishnan, manager of the Financial Management unit of the Latin America and Caribbean region of the World Bank, described PEFA as an essential tool for helping partner countries improve their management systems, and thus also for contributing to alleviating poverty.

“In the last six years, PEFA has helped a range of countries move forward in their reforms in various sectors, (…) for example in reducing transaction costs”, he said.

He pointed out Honduras as a country which used PEFA in 2008 and subsequently implemented a number of changes which led to improvement in 10 PEFA indicators in 2012.

Regarding the issue of publication, “we are in an era where transparency should be the norm”, he said, though stressing that issues pointed out by partners should be dealt with “in a healthy way”.

PEFA Initiative exists since 2001 and gathers seven partners: the World Bank, the IMF, the European Commission and bilateral donors such as France, United Kingdom, Switzerland and Norway and is since used by various other partners.