PFI conference 2020: public financial management for better public services
Confirmed speakers include
Ivor Beazley – Senior Financial Management Specialist, World Bank
Kalipso Chalkidou – Director of Global Health Policy, Centre for Global Development
Neil Cole – Executive Secretary, Collaborative African Budget Reform Initiative
Khuram Farooq – Chair of IFMIS Community of Practice, World Bank
Sam Freedman – Chief Executive, Ark's Education Partnerships Group
Loraine Hawkins – Governor, The Health Foundation
Adnan Khan – Professor of Practice, London School of Economics
Dorjan Marušič – Former Minister of Health, Slovenia
Kenneth Mugambe – Director Budget at the Uganda Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development
Marcel Mukeshimana – Accountant General, Government of Rwanda
Tsegay Tekleselassie – Research Fellow, Ethiopian Development Research Institute
Description
The Sustainable Development Goals have at their core a drive to ensure that all people should be able to enjoy a basic standard of living, including access to quality healthcare, education, water and sanitation. Achieving these goals will require a significant expansion of basic public services.
More resources will be needed, but many factors will constrain how much funding can be raised in the medium-term. Many of the world’s poorest countries are being affected by a weaker global economy and rising debt servicing costs. There are limits to how much additional revenue can be raised over the short-term. The relative importance of aid flows that have traditionally prioritised social sectors are also diminishing.
If progress is going to be made, governments will have to do more with the resources they have available. Public financial management (PFM) reforms are expected to play a critical role in improving the efficiency and equity of public spending. A new agenda linking public financial management reforms to service delivery is emerging. It’s not just accountants, auditors or fiscal economists looking at systems for allocating and using public resources, but health, education and water specialists too.
This two-day conference invites ministers, civil servants and leading academics working across finance, health and education to reflect on why and how public financial management does, and does not, deliver for public services. We explore:
- Is a focus on service delivery just about repackaging old reforms, or is a more substantive rethink of the role of PFM needed?
- Should public finance management have a role to play beyond simply getting inputs where they are needed when they are needed?
- How can governments make use of improved analysis to inform resource allocation decisions?
- How do regulations set at the centre of government affect decisions taken by downstream service providers?
- What scope is there to promote accountability for the delivery of effective services?
- How might the next wave of technological advances support improved resource allocation and use?