Publication: Guinea-Bissau Public Expenditure Review: Seizing the Moment - Managing Public Finance for Development
Loading...
Published
2018-06
ISSN
Date
2019-07-01
Author(s)
Editor(s)
Abstract
Guinea-Bissau is a small state in West Africa with a population of around 1.8 million. It is rich in natural resources (fisheries, forestry and agriculture) and biodiversity. Guinea-Bissau is host to a large variety of ethnic groups, languages and religions, with communal and ethnic-based violence remaining low. The country has a history of political and institutional fragility dating back to its independence from Portugal in 1973. Guinea-Bissau continues to face formidable development challenges, but resources remain very limited. Government spending on the social sectors is low, which, combined with low efficiency, translated into weak outcomes. The objective of the Guinea-Bissau Public Expenditure Review (PER) is to analyze government expenditure, fiscal revenue, and public financial management in selected sectors (education, health, and security). The sectors for analysis were selected based on a combination of factors, including spending trends, budget size, the country's development program, and World Bank engagement. The PER has been initiated by the World Bank and the team worked closely with the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF), and line ministries throughout the process. The PER is well aligned with the FY2018-2021 Country Partnership Framework (CPF). The first two objectives of the CPF are increased access to and quality of primary education, and increased access to and quality of maternal and health services. The CPF identifies limited fiscal space and weak PFM systems as being among the key challenges to improving access to quality social services. The PER also supports the fourth pillar of the Government's National Development Plan, Terra Ranka (Fresh Start), which aims to develop the human capital potential of the population. The three sectors under consideration together account for over thirty percent of government expenditure; thus, any efficiency improvements and/or expenditure savings in those sectors are likely to be substantial.
Link to Data Set
Citation
“World Bank Group. 2018. Guinea-Bissau Public Expenditure Review: Seizing the Moment - Managing Public Finance for Development. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/32004 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
Associated URLs
Associated content
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue
Collections
Related items
Showing items related by metadata.
Publication Guinea-Bissau Public Expenditure Review(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2019-01-17)Guinea-Bissau is a small state in West Africa with a population of around 1.8 million. It is rich in natural resources (fisheries, forestry and agriculture) and biodiversity. Economic activity is, however, dominated by the production and sale of unprocessed cashew, which is also the main source of income for more than two thirds of households. Guinea-Bissau is host to a large variety of ethnic groups, languages and religions, with communal and ethnic-based violence remaining low. The country has a history of political and institutional fragility dating back to its independence from Portugal in 1973. Since independence, four successful coups have been recorded, with another 16 coups attempted, plotted, or alleged. Political fragility has been manifesting itself in frequent government turnover. Political instability has been responsible for large drops in output and government expenditure. After almost three years of political gridlock, a new consensus government came to power in April 2018. In sum, Guinea-Bissau has been caught in a vicious cycle of poor governance, fragmented elites, weak public sector capacity, and a poorly diversified economy. The objective of the Guinea-Bissau Public Expenditure Review (PER) is to analyze government expenditure, fiscal revenue, and public financial management in selected sectors (education, health, and security). The PER is a follow-up to the World Bank’s (2017) Public Expenditure Analysis that provided an overall review of public finances in Guinea-Bissau (see Annex I). It contains a wide range of analyses, with some chapters examining public spending trends and outcomes, while others are more process oriented and place a strong emphasis on PFM systems, at macro- and micro-levels. The education and health chapters go beyond the confines of traditional World Bank PERs—namely the efficiency, effectiveness, and equity of spending. Both of these chapters also review the PFM systems in the respective line ministries with a view to identifying options for reform. Further, the PER analyzes the fiscal implications of continuing to spend over 15 percent of the budget on the security sector and nearly 9 percent of GDP on wage and nonwage compensation.Publication Guinea-Bissau - Public Expenditure Review Update : Enhancing Growth and Fiscal Adjustment Through Civil Service Reform(World Bank, 2007-05-23)Guinea-Bissau's large public sector wage bill poses a major threat to the country's macroeconomic stability: it hampers growth, limits the government's ability to service the domestic and external debt, and crowds out private investments. For this reason, the government decided in early 2006 to retrench more than 2,800 civil servants in a first phase, and about 1,600 military later. The objectives of this public expenditure review (PER) update are to: (i) review progress in macroeconomic and fiscal management since the previous PER; (ii) analyze the issue of compensation benefits in the context of the ongoing civil service reform; and (ii) update the debt sustainability analysis for Guinea-Bissau. Besides this introduction, the report includes three main chapters on macroeconomic management, improving the fiscal situation, and debt sustainability. The report also gives a final conclusion and discusses the way forward.Publication Improving Public Expenditure Efficiency for Growth and Poverty Reduction : A Public Expenditure Review for the Republic of Moldova(Washington, DC, 2007-02)The Government of Moldova's Economic Growth and Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (EGPRSP) lays out an ambitious plan for sustaining growth and poverty reduction and reshaping the government to meet the needs of a market economy. The public expenditures envisaged under this ambitious plan, however, vastly exceed the domestic resources available to the Government. Additional foreign budgetary support may help alleviate some of that resource constraint. Recognizing that the share of tax revenues and expenditures to GDP in Moldova already greatly exceed comparable international levels, generating additional domestic tax resources risks crowding out the private sector and undermining growth prospects. This suggests that in order to finance higher order public expenditures priorities, the Government needs to create fiscal space from within the existing resource envelope. This will require inter and intra-sectoral reallocation of expenditures and an increase in the efficiency of public spending rather than increasing the relative size of government.Publication Uganda - A Public Expenditure Review 2008 : With a Focus on Affordability of Pay Reform and Health Sector(World Bank, 2009-05-30)This report is a further response to the call from Uganda's leaders for 'value for money' in public spending. The report is the second in a series of three sector-oriented public expenditure reviews (PER) for the Government of Uganda (GOU) prepared by the World Bank as input into the Government of Uganda's budget reform initiatives. The focus of this report is efficiency and efficacy of spending by the Government of Uganda with a specific focus on the health sector. The first report in the series was 'Uganda fiscal policy for growth', published in 2007, with a focus on the education sector. This report comes in two volumes. Volume one is the main report with conclusions and policy recommendations which analyses composition of overall spending and budget implementation, budgetary consequences of ongoing pay reforms, and efficiency and effectiveness of spending in Uganda's health sector. Volume two contains a full report on the health sector, and includes the background papers prepared.Publication Papua New Guinea - Public Expenditure Review and Rationalization : Overview of Discussion Papers(Washington, DC, 2003-09)The Public Expenditure Review and Rationalization (PERR) report is the result of a collaborative effort between the Government of Papua New Guinea (GoPNG) and a multi-donor team led and coordinated by the World Bank. The report focuses on the analysis of technical issues, understanding the systems, procedures as well as appreciating the inner dynamics of public finance management. The study notes that collaboration can be improved and strengthened, especially in the areas of including more intensive and frequent interaction to complement each others' strengths and weaknesses and sharing responsibilities for analysis and drafting. The drafts of the Discussion Papers were sent to the Government for review and for formulation of an action plan for implementation in July 2003. This summary overview paper provides a synopsis of the Discussion papers.
Users also downloaded
Showing related downloaded files
Publication Classroom Assessment to Support Foundational Literacy(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-03-21)This document focuses primarily on how classroom assessment activities can measure students’ literacy skills as they progress along a learning trajectory towards reading fluently and with comprehension by the end of primary school grades. The document addresses considerations regarding the design and implementation of early grade reading classroom assessment, provides examples of assessment activities from a variety of countries and contexts, and discusses the importance of incorporating classroom assessment practices into teacher training and professional development opportunities for teachers. The structure of the document is as follows. The first section presents definitions and addresses basic questions on classroom assessment. Section 2 covers the intersection between assessment and early grade reading by discussing how learning assessment can measure early grade reading skills following the reading learning trajectory. Section 3 compares some of the most common early grade literacy assessment tools with respect to the early grade reading skills and developmental phases. Section 4 of the document addresses teacher training considerations in developing, scoring, and using early grade reading assessment. Additional issues in assessing reading skills in the classroom and using assessment results to improve teaching and learning are reviewed in section 5. Throughout the document, country cases are presented to demonstrate how assessment activities can be implemented in the classroom in different contexts.Publication Digital Africa(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13)All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.Publication World Development Report 2011(World Bank, 2011)The 2011 World development report looks across disciplines and experiences drawn from around the world to offer some ideas and practical recommendations on how to move beyond conflict and fragility and secure development. The key messages are important for all countries-low, middle, and high income-as well as for regional and global institutions: first, institutional legitimacy is the key to stability. When state institutions do not adequately protect citizens, guard against corruption, or provide access to justice; when markets do not provide job opportunities; or when communities have lost social cohesion-the likelihood of violent conflict increases. Second, investing in citizen security, justice, and jobs is essential to reducing violence. But there are major structural gaps in our collective capabilities to support these areas. Third, confronting this challenge effectively means that institutions need to change. International agencies and partners from other countries must adapt procedures so they can respond with agility and speed, a longer-term perspective, and greater staying power. Fourth, need to adopt a layered approach. Some problems can be addressed at the country level, but others need to be addressed at a regional level, such as developing markets that integrate insecure areas and pooling resources for building capacity Fifth, in adopting these approaches, need to be aware that the global landscape is changing. Regional institutions and middle income countries are playing a larger role. This means should pay more attention to south-south and south-north exchanges, and to the recent transition experiences of middle income countries.Publication Business Ready 2024(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2024-10-03)Business Ready (B-READY) is a new World Bank Group corporate flagship report that evaluates the business and investment climate worldwide. It replaces and improves upon the Doing Business project. B-READY provides a comprehensive data set and description of the factors that strengthen the private sector, not only by advancing the interests of individual firms but also by elevating the interests of workers, consumers, potential new enterprises, and the natural environment. This 2024 report introduces a new analytical framework that benchmarks economies based on three pillars: Regulatory Framework, Public Services, and Operational Efficiency. The analysis centers on 10 topics essential for private sector development that correspond to various stages of the life cycle of a firm. The report also offers insights into three cross-cutting themes that are relevant for modern economies: digital adoption, environmental sustainability, and gender. B-READY draws on a robust data collection process that includes specially tailored expert questionnaires and firm-level surveys. The 2024 report, which covers 50 economies, serves as the first in a series that will expand in geographical coverage and refine its methodology over time, supporting reform advocacy, policy guidance, and further analysis and research.Publication Argentina Country Climate and Development Report(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2022-11)The Argentina Country Climate and Development Report (CCDR) explores opportunities and identifies trade-offs for aligning Argentina’s growth and poverty reduction policies with its commitments on, and its ability to withstand, climate change. It assesses how the country can: reduce its vulnerability to climate shocks through targeted public and private investments and adequation of social protection. The report also shows how Argentina can seize the benefits of a global decarbonization path to sustain a more robust economic growth through further development of Argentina’s potential for renewable energy, energy efficiency actions, the lithium value chain, as well as climate-smart agriculture (and land use) options. Given Argentina’s context, this CCDR focuses on win-win policies and investments, which have large co-benefits or can contribute to raising the country’s growth while helping to adapt the economy, also considering how human capital actions can accompany a just transition.