PREM Notes

176 items available

Permanent URI for this collection

http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9424

This note series is intended to summarize good practices and key policy findings on poverty reduction and economic management (PREM) topics.

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 42

Implementing Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys for Results : Lessons from a Decade of Global Experience

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-11) Gurkan, Asli ; Kaiser, Kai ; Voorbraak, Doris

Public Expenditure Tracking Surveys (PETS) can serve as a powerful tool to inform prevailing public financial management (PFM) practices and the extent to which government budgets link to execution and desired service delivery objectives and beneficiaries. Since the first PETS in Uganda in 1996, tracking exercises have now been conducted in over two dozen other countries, often as part of core analytical and advisory work related to PFM. This note synthesizes the findings and lessons from a number of recent PETS stocktaking exercises and indicates their potential benefits for enriching PFM and sectoral policy dialogues in a variety of country settings. Key findings include: (i) PETS have proven to be useful as part of a broader policy strategy aimed at improving service delivery results; (ii) PETS has become a brand name for very different instruments, but at its core there is a survey methodology that requires skilled technical expertise and a solid knowledge of budget execution processes; (iii) policy impact in a variety of PETS experiences could be further strengthened by stronger country ownership and effective follow-up; and (iv) the Bank could enhance PETS results through strategic partnering, and greater emphasis on dissemination and communication strategies aimed at involving actors who can foster actions on the ground.
Fiscal Policy for Growth

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-04) Ley, Eduardo

While the term 'fiscal space' is new, the issue is quite old. Fiscal space refers to availability of budgetary resources for a specific purpose, typically growth-enhancing investment uses, without jeopardizing the sustainability of the government's financial position, or the stability of the economy. The recent interest in fiscal space originated as a reaction to International Monetary Fund (IMF), supported fiscal-adjustment programs that by focusing too narrowly on fiscal-deficit targets often ignored the quality of the underlying adjustment. Affected countries meanwhile advocated for fiscal space for investments in physical and human infrastructure crucial for economic growth. The IMF independent evaluation office, in their study on fiscal Adjustment in IMF supported programs acknowledged this problem, observing that 'much of the fiscal adjustment achieved is through measures that do not assure long-term sustainability and flexibility of fiscal systems to future shocks'. In effect, the improvement of the fiscal balance in the context of IMF-supported programs too often relied heavily in cuts in public investment that improve today's government cash flow at the expense of future economic growth.
Linking Fiscal Policy and Growth in PER Reports : An Operational Framework for Low-Income Countries

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-03) Moreira, Emmanuel Pinto

This note describes a framework for linking fiscal policy and growth issues in low-income countries. The framework has been developed in the context of a recently, completed Public Expenditure Management and Financial Accountability Review (PEMFAR) report in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region. The note describes first the framework and then illustrates its application to fiscal reform and growth prospects in the context of Haiti. The note concludes by laying out an agenda for developing this framework further, ideally to facilitate use of this framework in preparing more Public Expenditure Reviews (PERs) and elaborating medium-term budget frameworks.
On the Marriage Between Public Spending and Growth : What Else Do We Know?

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-03) Moreno-Dodson, Blanca

While there are strong theoretical arguments for ways in which public spending influences growth, robust empirical links have been difficult to establish. More recently, many of the methodological problems that plagued the earlier literature have been overcome and interesting policy lessons drawn. The number of studies of developing countries using these new approaches is still limited, due to data scarcity and other comparability issues, but overall findings from the new literature are relevant for developing country policy makers and also open new venues for future research. The objective of this note is to present these new empirical results together with the methodological improvements that support them, and to outline some of the issues that need deeper analysis and empirical study, particularly in developing countries.
A Stocktaking of PRSPs in Fragile States

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-11) Dudwick, Nora ; Nelsson, Adam

In 1999, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) introduced poverty reduction strategy papers (PRSPs) as a condition for highly indebted countries to receive debt relief under the HIPC initiative. Since then, PRSPs have become a condition for aid to International Development Association (IDA) countries, for which they are considered instrumental in refocusing attention on poverty, democratizing policy making, and improving donor coordination. While PRSPs may play that role in many IDA countries, their usefulness in fragile states, including those just emerging from conflict, has been questioned. Increased donor attention to the specific problems of such states was the impetus for a Poverty Reduction Group (PRMPR) stocktaking of PRSPs in fragile environments.
Decentralizing Infrastructure Services : Lessons from the East Asia Experience

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-06) Muzzini, Elisa

This document specifies, most east asian countries have increasingly shifted responsibilities for infrastructure services to subnational tiers of governments. Infrastructure service provision involves a broad set of functions, including setting investment priorities, building and operating infrastructure facilities, and financing capital and operation and maintenance requirements. The extent to which each of these functions is transferred to subnational agencies defines a country's decentralization approach for infrastructure services. Subnational governments also have significant leeway in deciding how to mobilize funds for infrastructure projects. The infrastructure projects focused in three countries China, Indonesia, and the Philippines. In China, the central government plays a prominent role in setting investment priorities across infrastructure sectors. Indonesia and the Philippines have adopted a big bang approach to infrastructure decentralization. The report concludes, despite the heterogeneous environments in which decentralization has been implemented in the three countries, important lessons can be learned by comparing how each has fared in promoting regional coordination and building accountability for infrastructure services in a decentralized environment.
Pro-Poor Public Spending Reform : Uganda's Virtual Poverty Fund

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-03) Williamson, Tim ; Canagarajah, Sudharshan

The Poverty Action Fund (PAF) was introduced in Uganda in 1998 to reorient government expenditures towards implementing its Poverty Education Action Plan (PEAP) as well as to account for Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) resource use. This paper notes the successes of the PAR, the negative aspects, and the key lessons learned. Successes include: reorienting budget allocations towards pro-poor service delivery and demonstrating the additionality of debt relief; mobilizing donor resources and harmonizing conditions; and improved budget predictability, transparency, and accountability. The negative aspects include: unbalanced budget allocations, biased budget implementation, partial monitoring and evaluation, and no exit strategy. The key lessons were: To be effective, a Virtual Poverty Fund (VPF) should be simple and limited to the identification of Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) priority expenditures in the budget classification system; a VPF should be introduced in a way that supports rather than replaces the implementation of such comprehensive improvements in budget preparation and implementation; and a VPF does not bypass the need to have a PRSP and an effective budget process that identify priority pro-poor expenditures to be included in the VPF as part of a broader policy framework for growth and poverty reduction.
Contracting for Delivering Health

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-02) Loevinsohn, Benjamin ; Harding, April

Substantial improvement in the delivery of health services will be necessary to achieve the health-related Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). A review of developing country experience with contracting for health service delivery was undertaken to examine its effectiveness, determine the extent to which the posited difficulties actually occur in practice, and make recommendations regarding future efforts in contracting. The focus of the review was instances in developing countries of governments contracting with non-state providers (NSPs) to deliver primary health care services including nutrition (but excluding hospital care or ancillary services such as drug procurement and distribution). Based on the success thus far, health services' contracting should be significantly expanded in developing countries as a way of helping achieve the MDGs, and increasing accountability. While the evidence for contracting is reasonably good, future efforts should still include rigorous evaluations to obtain more robust estimates of the effects under various conditions and address unresolved issues, such as the effectiveness of performance bonuses, and means for improving contract management.
Modeling Pay and Employment

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2006-02) Nunberg, Barbara ; Green, Amanda ; Reid, Gary

Bank support for civil service reform (CSR) in developing countries used to focus mainly on improving government pay, and employment practices. In recent years, CSR programs have sought a broader set of management improvements. But getting public pay and employment right is still fundamental: establishing appropriate civil service employment dimensions, and providing rewarding-but affordable-remuneration for public servants remains a formidable challenge for many countries. Pay policies need to be fiscally responsible, but also attractive enough to draw the best talent into the public sector. In addition, such policies must be politically feasible; governments need to support difficult reforms that can survive implementation without being undermined or derailed. The Civil Service Pay and Employment Model (CSPEM) was created to help governments develop realistic civil service pay and employment strategies, and to enhance policy discussions within government, and between government and donors on these important reforms. This note describes early lessons of experience with civil service pay and employment modeling tools.
Institutionalizing M&E systems in Latin American and Caribbean Countries

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-09) Burdescu, Ruxandra ; del Villar, Azul ; Mackay, Keith ; Rojas, Fernando ; Saavedra, Jaime

Countries are driving the efforts to institutionalize monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems. Through the promotion of knowledge-sharing, and by taking stock of current M&E systems, fostering South-South collaboration, raising awareness through presentations, and, by launching an informal regional network, the note reviews the cases of Colombia, Chile, Brazil, Mexico and Peru. It became evident from country experiences, that there is no single "destination" for countries. Some stress a system of performance indicators, while others focus on conducting evaluations (program reviews or rigorous impact evaluation (IE). And while some countries have created a whole of government approach driven by finance, or planning ministries, others are more focused on sector M&E systems. One key characteristic of most of the systems that are now at different stages of implementation in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is that they are country-led efforts to institutionalize M&E, rather than donor-driven.