It was a privilege to represent CABRI member countries at the World Bank global conference on Reimagining Public Finances: Making Public Resources Work for Development Outcomes in Washington, DC, on 29 and 30 September, as well as at ODI Global’s conference on Building Resilient Futures in London from 7-8 October. Whilst the polycrisis of public finance (PF) is rapidly proliferating, driven by significant international exogenous shifts and domestic country vulnerabilities, the broadly emerging lesson is clear: when countries truly determine their own reform processes focused on prioritised country outcomes; they build the public finance systems and capabilities needed to make public spending effective and efficient and promote country development. This is at the core of CABRI’s establishment as an intergovernmental organisation, with the stated vision of integrity, transparency and accountability as the operating principles that ensure public resources consistently deliver quality services, drive sustainable growth and improve lives across Africa.

Panellists and participants at both conferences deliberated on the PF country praxis emerging in terms of fiscal accountability and fiscal management across our continent and the globe, but also most importantly, accountability regarding politics and development. The underpinning understanding being that the technical public financial management (PFM) tools developed in countries over the last two decades, remain useful and that their use is a necessary condition for outcome-led country development, but not a sufficient condition. PFM must be reimagined and outcome-led in addressing its bottlenecks.

Exactly how this is to be done is still unfolding and will continue to be assessed. What is clear from the ODI Global deliberations is that building fiscal resilience in countries is complex – prioritisation is paramount. There are many areas of public sector problems, ranging from debt management and climate change; to ensuring economic growth, functional cities, social protection and addressing country and regional fragility and displaced persons, health and citizen wellness, education for the future, etc. Anchors for a resilient country's future and country budget lie in appropriate PFM, fiscal rules, and investment in institutions.

Institutional strengthening in ministries of finance relies on institutional design and on the capabilities of its officials. It is apparent that there are countries that have similar institutional structures and systems, yet development outcome achievements differ as well as the future trajectory. De facto and de jure public finance praxis within countries also differs. What is clear is that a compliance driven approach to PFM reform will not ensure fiscal resilience, an outcome-led problem-driven approach will. From the PFM technical toolkit available, it intrinsically matters how the tools are used within the country context.

CABRI’s work is driven by our conviction that country development cannot be realised through isomorphic mimicry and imported solutions for our continent, but only by capacitating African nations to build their own capable and accountable institutions. CABRI’s flagship Building Public Finance Capabilities (BPFC) programme, developed to address the limits of traditional approaches to PF reform, uses the Harvard approach to problem-driven iterative adaptation (PDIA) to assist them in this endeavour. Since 2017, over 30 country-teams have participated in our programme, with the intention of discovering “what works, when, and how” within each context. CABRI BPFC country-teams have looked at problems across the full scope of PF and of different public services sectors.

It is our experience that PFM technical tools and techniques do matter, and may require highly specialised expertise, however, prioritising the most relevant problems and navigating the political economy and other local realities do count in ensuring that the desired change is not hindered. The “real” PF reform is in changing institutional functionality and not just its form. Real reform is in building the capabilities of public officials working across various sectors to develop/master the habit of solving problems whilst unlocking systemic bottlenecks, through multiple iterative, evidence-led cycles; that draw on the financial and statistical data available, institutional knowledge, and broad stakeholder insights. This approach aligns reforms to resonate with the country’s development reform agendas and simultaneously helps to curate these agendas.

However, fiscal resilience is not only about how to manage the current vulnerabilities. The PFM tools, techniques, systems and structures; and how officials are capacitated to manage problems and politics for their country's development will influence the future. Whilst CABRI stays committed to strengthening PF across Africa and regionally, international partners are signaling a better understanding of the issues at stake with the intention of reimagining how they support the building of the fiscal resilience of PF of countries.