The CABRI General Assembly meeting took place on 4 June 2025 in Banjul, The Gambia. At this meeting where Senior Budget Officials represented our network of CABRI country members, there was a renewed endorsement of CABRI’s strategic planning and more specifically, its current Expansion Phase. This was expressed by way of recommitment to CABRI with intentions for accelerating country participation and includes a commitment of a substantive increase in annual membership fees. The intention is purposeful collective action in the face of the unprecedented quantum of ever-changing geopolitical, development assistance and economic landscapes, that is a deepening of country representation and impact resulting from in country demand-led public finance work.
The General Assembly meeting culminated with the election of The Gambia to hold the Chairpersonship of CABRI’s Management Committee for its upcoming two-year tenure for the period 2025/26 and 2027/28. The Gambia will be serving its second consecutive term on the MC and will be supported in overseeing and guiding CABRI’s mission by member countries: Central African Republic, Ghana (also serving a second consecutive term) as well as Lesotho and Malawi. I wish to express my heartfelt thanks to all the former Management Committee members for their commitment and dedication in bringing CABRI into its Expansion Phase well-positioned. More especially I would like to thank the former Chairperson who represented Mauritius in the capacity of leading the Management Committee, and the representative of Kenya, who both served for two terms.
The Secretariat and member countries of CABRI congratulate the newly elected CABRI Management Committee and thank the members in advance for the support that they will continue to provide the organisation in its expansion towards the realisation of CABRI as a thought leader and voice of PFM in Africa. CABRI also looks forward to the chairpersonship of the General Assembly by South Africa for 2025/26, which was held by Rwanda for 2024/25.
Whilst we ardently anticipate a growth in membership and increasing our footprint on the continent, the commitment of current members is unwavering and remains testament to the domestic relevance of the public finance work and reforms undertaken in countries with the support of CABRI, albeit the ever-changing landscape. This is evidenced in the context of countries of different sizes and stages of development, of different priorities and political dynamics, and different demographics including across the Francophone and Anglophone public finance systems and regions of the continent.
The demand for expansion is unanimous and true as at CABRI’s inception, the requirement for it to be founded on CABRI as a peer network responding to a need for shared learning on public financial management issues within an African-led forum. After the first year of execution against the CABRI Strategic Plan 2024 to 2029, member countries are once more actively participating in organisational analyses of the most recent public finance management challenges, perspectives and learnings to position CABRI’s work areas best in support of country reforms.
This past year commemorated 20 years since CABRI was established. The collective intention to this day remains – through the hard work of senior budget officials, the focus will be centred on the work of African country budget practitioners and on impactful country reforms.
| The key elements underpinning success historically remain central to future success, CABRI will ensure that: |
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| • the right people are in the audience - the Heads of budget and sector ministries of countries of Africa and their proxies; |
| • the right focus is on relevant and real gaps, challenges and problems – for significant impact on development outcomes; |
| • the right evidence is deliberated on – country analyses, policy implementation experiences and outcomes comparison across the continent; |
| • the right intention – reforms centred on the functionality and not only the form and format of changes; |
| • the right praxis – understanding very well how improvements and reforms really bring about advancement and inclusion for citizens. |
Over time and in the future, CABRI has and continues to learn more about our network of senior budget and other country officials and about how to better ensure an environment peer network collaboration and co-creation. As CABRI we remain focused on issues that are common to African countries, whilst allowing for domestic country interpretation and implementation. CABRI lessons learned historically have an impact that resonates across the various countries on our continent. Together, through our future collective efforts as a peer network, we purposefully intend to continue showcasing these country successes and build upon our CABRI legacy. CABRI will continue to strengthen and accelerate reform and transformation in deepening the public finance management impact within African countries.