It was a great pleasure to be at ODI Global's 2025 Public Finance Conference on "Building resilient futures", this week.

Dr Kay Brown, Executive Secretary of CABRI was one of the panellists on 8 October, for the final session of the conference on economic resilience: What's on the agenda?. The session explored the changing roles of different domestic and international actors in building economic resilience.

Trade-offs between setting aside funds for short-term responses versus investment in long-term growth and capabilities were the amongst the buzzwords for this two-day conference in London.

Asked about how she thinks the outcome-led and problem-driven approach which was at the center of last week's World Bank conference (29-30 September), at which CABRI was present, can help governments address those trade-offs, drawing from CABRI's flagship programme, the Building Public Finance Capabilities (BPFC) programme, Dr Brown reiterated that, it is important to focus on an outcome-led approach and to involve various stakeholders in the process. Emphasising the need to prioritise function over form, she added,  "(...). Yes, we have all these tools. In fact, we should be careful not to be overwhelmed by the number of tools we have and how sophisticated and technical they can be. The key is which ones we use and how we use them (...).", adding that, "as decisions are being made, how do you iteratively use the evidence that you have at hand (...). (...) Essentially, you must have a people approach and know how we use our tools and techniques. (...)."

The conference held from 7-8 October, brought together policymakers, public finance officials and global experts to discuss how, in an increasingly uncertain world, countries can respond to shocks in the short- term, while reducing their vulnerabilities in the longer-term.

We thank ODI Global for giving us the opportunity to be part of such an enriching two-day conference. Together, we are taking public finance to a resilient future.