Public financial management and accountability

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This gateway guide is designed to point readers to the most useful, credible and up-to-date resources available on the internet in relation to public financial management and accountability (PFMA) in a development context. It was prepared by Andrew McDevitt in October 2008. Suggestions are welcome at: enquiries@gsdrc.org.

Contents:

• PFMA guidance
• Academic resources
• Thematic resources
• Selected regional resources
• Blogs
• Journals

PFMA guidance

• World Bank: PFM Reform Database
  This database contains reference material on public financial management reforms, drawn from a wide variety of sources within and outside the World Bank. It includes country case studies, good practices, reference models, tips and guidance, and academic studies.
  
• World Bank: Public Finance
  This World Bank site focuses on economic management and the technical aspects of public financial management. It contains mostly World Bank material, including data sets, toolkits, handbooks, guidelines and seminar material.
  
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): Public Governance & Management
  This website hosts two sections with OECD material on Public Financial Management: Budgeting and Public Expenditures, and Public Finance. The OECD also hosts the Joint Venture on PFM, which aims to foster good practices in implementing PFM reforms;  harmonise the measurement of PFM performance; and share PFM knowledge and experiences among donors and partners on using country PFM.
  
• Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA)
  PEFA is a partnership between the World Bank, the European Commission, the IMF and various donors. It aims to support integrated and harmonised approaches to assessment of public financial management (PFM). It showcases the PEFA PFM Performance Measurement Framework and contains country assessment reports as well as training resources.
  
• Support for Improvement in Governance and Management (SIGMA)
  Sigma is a joint initiative of the European Union (EU) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) which supports public management reform in central and eastern Europe. The site includes papers, assessment reports and country profiles as well as conference material.
  
• Asian Development Bank (ADB): Financial Management
  The ADB’s section on financial management includes financial management guidelines, country diagnostic studies, financial management initiatives as well as information on the harmonisation of multilateral development banks' financial management and analysis practices.
  
• Inter-American Development Bank (IADB): Public Finances
  The IADB’s section on public finances includes news, publications and information on public financial management projects in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Academic resources

• ODI: Centre for Aid & Public Expenditure (CAPE)
  This ODI research centre contains a range of ODI’s own publications on public financial management. Much of the research is framed in the context of aid and donor relations and takes a political-economy perspective.
  
• The Centre for the Future State (CFS): Tax, Revenue and Public Finance 
  The CFS’s research programme, ‘Financing the State’, explores the connection between political development and public finances. Theme 6: Tax, Revenue and Public Finance includes research papers from a variety of northern and southern sources.

Thematic resources

• International Budget Project (IBP)
  The IBP aims to assist civil society organisations around the world to improve budget policies and decision-making processes in their countries. This site includes a large database of guides, country reports, model reports and lessons learned aimed at an NGO audience.
  
• Gender Responsive Budgets
  This website is a collaborative effort between the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Commonwealth Secretariat and Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC). It aims to ensure that planning and budgeting effectively respond to gender equality goals and contains a variety of resources, assessments and training materials on gender responsive budgeting.
  
• Center on International Cooperation (CIC): Public finance and economic recovery
  This website contains publications from CIC’s post-conflict public finance and economic recovery project, which explores how the economic agenda of public finance interacts with the political agendas of peacebuilding and statebuilding.
  
• U4: Corruption in PFM
  This thematic sub-section of the U4 website includes best practices and lessons learned in relation to corruption in public finance, aimed at policy makers.
  
• The International Consortium on Governmental Financial Management (ICGFM)
  The ICGFM is an international consortium of government entities, organisations and individuals which aims to improve public financial management. The site hosts the International Journal on Governmental Financial Management, and includes a newsletter and conference material.
  
• Eldis: Domestic Finance Resource Guide
  This thematic sub-section of the Eldis Finance Policy resource guide includes a regularly updated selection of research on budgets, education financing and taxation from a wide range of sources.

Selected regional resources

• Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI)
  CABRI is a new pan-African network of senior budget officials which aims to contribute towards the efficacy of public finance management in Africa. The site contains documentation on seminars as well as country studies.
  
• Affiliated Network for Social Accountability (ANSA-Africa): Accountability in Service Delivery
  ANSA-Africa’s section on service delivery includes a number of publications relating to PFMA from a wide range of sources.
  
• Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA): Economic Governance
  The Economic Governance section of the IDASA website includes articles, briefs, papers and reports on government budget processes in South Africa.
  
• The National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), India
  This site contains a substantial collection of Indian research on tax policy and administration, public expenditure and fiscal federalism/decentralisation. 
  
• Local Government and Public Sector Reform Initiative (LGI), Hungary
  The Fiscal Transparency, Management and Accountability section of the LGI website includes an overview of key issues, project information and a large collection of publications relating to fiscal transparency and decentralisation in eastern Europe and central Asia.

Blogs

• Intenational Monetary Fund (IMF): PFM Blog
  This regularly updated IMF Blog aims to assist IMF member countries in enhancing performance of their public financial management systems. The site includes a large selection of country specific information as well as links to other PFM resources.
  
• The Kaufmann Governance Post: Public Financial Management
  This blog from Daniel Kaufmann, director of the World Bank Institute, discusses issues relating to governance and transparency, including a section on public financial management.
  
• Open Budgets Blog
  This blog from the International Budget Project (IBP) aims to stimulate discussion on issues relating to government budgets and citizen participation.

Journals

• Accounting, Auditing and Accountability
  
• Financial Accountability and Management
  
• International Journal of Public Administration
  
• Public Administration and Development
  
• Public Money and Management
  
• OECD Journal on Budgeting

New additions