Evaluation Synthesis on Public Financial Management

As part of its 2022-24 Work Program, Independent Development Evaluation (IDEV) at the African Development Bank Group (AfDB or “the Bank”) is conducting an evaluation synthesis of Public Financial Management (PFM) practices. Though African countries have shown improvements in fiscal management and macroeconomic management in the past years, increasingly high levels of debt, corruption, low domestic revenue mobilization, illicit fund flows, and weak institutional capacities undermine efforts to address their development goals. Consequently, there is a strong need to better protect public resources with resilient public financial management systems. This evaluation synthesis will distill important lessons from evaluative work on public financial management conducted by the AfDB, other multilateral development banks, bilateral agencies, and in the Bank’s regional member countries.

The purpose of the evaluation synthesis is to assess the relevance, effectiveness, and efficiency of the strategies and instruments used to strengthen public financial management, as well as potential outcomes. The AfDB and other development partners can use the emerging lessons to strengthen their support for public financial management in African countries. 

It will be an evaluation synthesis - a systematic organization of findings from several, sometimes disparate, evaluation studies. It will compile and assess existing evaluation evidence to answer specific policy or program questions. The evaluation will start with a desk review and consultations to map out, among others, the evaluation’s scope, methodology and questions. This will be followed by a compilation, selection, analysis, and synthesis of evaluation evidence on PFM. Finally, the evaluation report will lay out the key findings, emerging lessons, and/or policy considerations for public finance management in African countries.

Task Manager: May Mwaka, Principal Evaluation Officer, IDEV