This public financial management introductory guide to public investment management is written specifically for finance or planning ministries in low-income and capacity-constrained environments that seek to manage their public investments more efficiently and effectively.

Whether or not a country’s portfolio of public investments delivers the anticipated economic and social benefits depends crucially on how well it is managed. The introductory guide begins with a definition of public investment management, and proceeds to outline the common features of public investment management systems in low-income countries in order to highlight the gap between how systems are meant to work on paper and how they often work in practise. This is followed by a concrete and pragmatic set of recommendations for how a ministry of finance or planning can improve public investment management in a low-income or low capacity environment. We conclude by providing an annotated bibliography of key literature on this topic to guide further reading.

This introductory guide is also available in French.