What can PEFA tell us about the efforts made towards better Perfor-mance in PFM systems?

The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the efforts to develop and strengthen PFM systems through the analysis of PEFA Performance Reports over time and to identify the increase or decrease of efforts to... [ view full abstract ]

The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the efforts to develop and strengthen PFM systems through the analysis of PEFA Performance Reports over time and to identify the increase or decrease of efforts to improve the performance of PFM systems measured by PEFA high level performance indicators. The data sample consists of 54 countries with at least one PEFA Performance Report in the years 2005 to 2010 and one report in the years 2006 to 2016. It was examined that lower middle income countries have significantly improved their performance of PFM systems compared to low income and upper middle income countries respectively. Where the former experience stagnation of PFM reform efforts between the two analyzed time periods, the latter have undergone a relative decrease in their overall performance.