The PEFA Secretariat was seeking feedback on a consultation draft of Volume IV of the PEFA Handbook: Using PEFA to support public financial management reform. The Public consutation was closed on March 15  and the document is currently under update.

The primary purpose of Volume IV of the PEFA Handbook is to provide guidance to countries on how to more effectively use PEFA assessment reports to improve PFM performance. The first three volumes of the handbook emphasize the importance of PEFA as an end-to-end assessment process that should be organized to ensure ownership, build capacity and facilitate consensus among stakeholders. The emphasis of Volume IV of the PEFA handbook is on the process after the PEFA report has been completed.

The guidance contained in Volume IV makes clear that that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution to supporting and implementing PFM reform and it is important to use PEFA assessment findings in the country context. Volume IV is, therefore, not intended to be prescriptive in setting recommendations on reform priorities or sequencing, but rather to provide a guide for countries on the issues that need to be considered in developing effective reform initiatives, strategies or action plans, designed to address each country’s unique situation. 

We are now inviting feedback, comments and suggestions on the draft of Volume IV  from interested PEFA stakeholders. We are particularly keen to hear from government officials, development partners and others involved in PFM reform. 

Public consultation is now open and will run to March 15, 2019.

Following the consultation period, the draft Volume IV will be updated, taking into account comments received.  It is expected that a final version of Volume IV will be published in the second half of 2019 following approval by the PEFA Steering Committee.

 Please send any comments and suggestions with ‘PEFA Volume IV’ in the subject line to Jens Kromann Kristensen, Head of the PEFA Secretariat at jkristensen@pefa.org with cc to the PEFA Secretariat services account at services@pefa.org.

In addition to the period of public consultation, the PEFA Secretariat is inviting interested governments and their partners to participate in piloting and testing of the guidance. Please contact Jens Kristensen for additional information and expressions of interest in piloting.