The number of countries where PEFA has been used just reached 150. Since the first assessment in 2005 PEFA has thus been used more than 500 times in 150 countries. PEFA has become the acknowledged global standard for public financial management (PFM) assessments and has amassed a pool of data comprising over 40,000 individual performance scores.
PEFA began in 2001 as a means to harmonize country level assessment of PFM across the organizations that established the program. It was established as a means to reduce the duplication and costs of multiple assessments and to facilitate dialogue between government and others about how to improve the effectiveness of fiscal policies.
PEFA was also aimed at improving the results of development cooperation as part of the global aid effectiveness agenda. It provided support for the Strengthening Approach established in 2005 through the Paris Declaration, then further developed in the Accra Agenda for Action in 2008, and the Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation in 2011.
PEFA introduced a standard methodology and reference tool for PFM diagnostic assessments. It was extensively discussed and tested between 2001 and 2005 with the aim of harmonizing the needs of government and their development partners for a common analytical tool and shared data. The first publicly available version of PEFA was launched in 2005 and reports for Afghanistan and Zambia were produced in that year.
