February 2015 | International Budget Partnership
The Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) program is a multidonor partnership that aims to improve how public finances are managed throughout the world. An important function of the program is to measure the quality of public financial management (PFM) systems, processes, and institutions through the PEFA framework.
In early 2014, PEFA called for submissions on how to revise their framework. Together with civil society organizations (CSOs) from around 50 countries, the International Budget Partnership issued a joint response offering three main recommendations on how the framework could be improved:
- Strengthen transparency indicators.
- Include a new indicator on public participation in budgeting.
- Reinstate donor aid indicators.
In late 2014, PEFA issued a newsflash summarizing the submissions they received. Unfortunately, public participation and aid transparency were not included among the revisions under consideration. IBP then teamed up with Publish What You Fund, the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT), and others to issue a second response (also available in French and Spanish). Additionally, GIFT submitted a proposal on public participation, developed in collaboration with CSOs. This proposal (available in English, French, and Spanish) serves as a helpful resource to shape norms and advocacy on public participation.