Download or read book Providing budget support to developing countries written by Great Britain: National Audit Office and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008-02-08 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Budget support is aid provided directly to a partner government's central exchequer, and aims to reduce poverty through helping to fund the poverty reduction strategy of the beneficiary country. DFID's use of budget support has risen to £461 million, representing nearly twenty per cent of bilateral expenditure. This study examines the aims of budget support, what it is achieving, how DFID manages the risks of using it and how DFID takes individual funding decisions. The report finds that budget support has: often enabled partner governments to increase expenditure on priority areas; resulted in partner governments providing more services, particularly in health and education; helped increase the capacity of partner governments to plan and deliver services effectively and to develop better poverty-focused policies; helped partner governments to strengthen their financial management systems and encouraged other donors to support such reforms; facilitated donor alignment to, and support for, the developing nation's own strategies; and reinforced existing economic stability and good economic management. But evidence on whether budget support has yielded better value for money than other forms of aid is not conclusive. While budget support has some advantages compared to other forms of aid, it also carries significant risks which need to be better managed. Monitoring achievement is challenging, and DFID does not always set out what it expects to achieve or by when. Formal monitoring frameworks do not always track progress in remedying weaknesses in financial systems. And monitoring of human rights - one of the key criteria for giving budget support - is not yet systematic. Weaknesses in available statistics continue to limit the ability to monitor results. Developing country governments may not be capable of using UK funds efficiently and effectively or may misuse them for political reasons or through corruption.

Download or read book Budget Support as More Effective Aid written by Stefan Koeberle and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2006-01-01 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Budget support has become an increasingly important instrument in the context of a partnership-based approach to development assistance. Compared to traditional modes of aid delivery, it promises greater country ownership, reduced transaction costs, better donor coordination, scaling up of poverty reduction and potentially greater development effectiveness. This book presents a timely and valuable review of key concepts, issues, experiences and emerging lessons relevant to budget support. It provides an overview of principal characteristics, expectations and concerns related to budget support, key design and implementation issues, as well as some practical experiences. The contributors include government representatives from developing countries, leading academic scholars, bilateral development agencies and development practitioners from international financial institutions, including the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. They present a wide range of views on key issues such as the choice of instruments, alignment of budget support with country programs, predictability, and coordination and conditionality. The authors draw their insightful analysis on the contemporary research and evaluation work, as well as the broad practical experience with budget support. This book will be of great interest to practitioners in aid-recipient countries and international financial institutions, bilateral agencies and civil organizations involved in budget support."

Download or read book Budget Support Versus Project Aid written by Mr.Tito Cordella and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2003-04-01 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Should donors who are interested in the effectiveness of developmental programs rely on conditional budget support or on project aid? To answer this question, we present a model in which only a subset of the developmental expenditures can be subject to conditionality. We show that budget support is preferable to project aid when donors and recipients' preferences are aligned, and when assistance is small relative to recipients' resources. Then, we test our model estimating a modified growth model for a panel of developing countries, and find evidence in support of our predictions.

Download or read book Retooling Development Aid in the 21st Century written by Shahrokh Fardoust and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-03-27 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aid instruments need to adjust to new challenges and priorities. Global pandemics, climate change, increased inequality, low economic growth, and conflict have made it increasingly difficult for developing countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Retooling Development Aid in the 21st Century: The Importance of Budget Support examines the critical role of budget support by both multilateral and bilateral aid agencies to address the 21st century's development goals of eliminating poverty and protecting our global commons. Timely and smartly designed budget support remains a powerful tool to help address the new reality developing countries face, providing fast disbursing finance in support of critical reforms. Set against the background of a dramatically changing international financial architecture, the volume examines how budget support has evolved from its controversial past, addresses the evidence on performance and debates over conditionality, and it reflects on unmet expectations from the 2005 Paris Declaration. With the global financial crisis, the Covid pandemic, and the spillovers from conflict and climate change, budget support re-emerged as a key financing instrument to support policy reforms and catalyze private capital. Drawing on the lessons of the last two decades, the volume proposes a retooling of budget support as a versatile instrument to address both essential global public goods and tackle country-specific development challenges.

Download or read book Department for International Development written by Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts and published by The Stationery Office. This book was released on 2008 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Budget support is aid provided directly to a partner government's central exchequer, and aims to reduce poverty through helping to fund the poverty reduction strategy of the beneficiary country. DFID's use of budget support has risen to £461 million, representing nearly twenty per cent of bilateral expenditure. Budget support has been designed to improve aid effectiveness by reinforcing developing country policies and systems, and reducing transaction costs. Despite having provided budget support in some countries for many years, however, the Department has not established whether it is in practice cost-effective. DFID's main criterion for providing budget support is that benefits must outweigh the risks, a judgement which is assessed subjectively by country teams. DFID assesses weaknesses in financial systems but rarely estimates the associated risks of corruption or waste of UK funds. DFID's monitoring has basic weaknesses in specifying suitable indicators and tracking progress against objectives. Bodies such as Parliaments, State Audit Offices and civil society organisations can provide effective challenge to governments and ensure that the poor benefit from budget support funding. DFID has not historically paid sufficient attention to strengthening domestic accountability. DFID also has a responsibility to UK stakeholders to demonstrate that funds have been spent effectively.

Download or read book The Role of Foreign Aid in Development written by Eric Jackson Labs and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 94 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Planning and Budgeting in Poor Countries written by Naomi Caiden and published by Transaction Publishers. This book was released on 1980-01-01 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This substantial treatment of budgeting in poor countries and discussion of the relationship between planning and budgeting covers over eighty nations and three-fourths of the worlds population. While there are many treatments of planning, the approach of this study is radically different. The authors argue that the requisites of comprehensive economic planning do not exist in poor countries, and that in the effort to create them, planners merge into the environment they have set out to change. Caiden and Wildavsky provide a unique and thorough examination of planning and budgeting by governments of poor countries throughout the world, and recommend reforms that are workable and realistic for these countries. They analyze the political, economic, and social developments that influence budgeting and planning in developing countries.

Download or read book Assessing Aid written by and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1998 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Assessing Aid determines that the effectiveness of aid is not decided by the amount received but rather the institutional and policy environment into which it is accepted. It examines how development assistance can be more effective at reducing global poverty and gives five mainrecommendations for making aid more effective: targeting financial aid to poor countries with good policies and strong economic management; providing policy-based aid to demonstrated reformers; using simpler instruments to transfer resources to countries with sound management; focusing projects oncreating and transmitting knowledge and capacity; and rethinking the internal incentives of aid agencies.

Download or read book DAC Guidelines and Reference Series Harmonising Donor Practices for Effective Aid Delivery written by OECD and published by OECD Publishing. This book was released on 2003-04-14 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book presents a set of practical steps related to harmonising donor practices that should significantly improve the effectiveness of development assistance.

Download or read book Public Procurement Regulation in Africa written by Sue Arrowsmith and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-17 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the regulatory rules on public procurement in selected African countries and provides a comparative analysis of key regulatory issues.

Download or read book Budget Institutions and Fiscal Performance in Low Income Countries written by Victor Duarte Lledo and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2010-03-01 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper presents, for the first time, multi-dimensional indices of the quality of budget institutions in low-income countries. The indices allow for benchmarking against the performance of middle-income countries, across regions, and according to different institutional arrangements that deliver good fiscal performance. Using the constructed indices, the paper provides preliminary empirical support for the hypotheses that strong budget institutions help improve fiscal balances and public external debt outcomes; and countries with stronger fiscal institutions have better scope to conduct countercyclical policies.

Download or read book Foreign Aid for Development written by George Mavrotas and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2010-02-25 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An edited collection on foreign aid that addresses important aid questions, and reviews the shifting aid landscape in light of the recent global financial crisis. The volume reviews the progress achieved so far, identifies the challenges ahead, and discusses the emerging policy agenda in foreign aid.

Download or read book The End of Poverty written by Jeffrey D. Sachs and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2006-02-28 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Book and man are brilliant, passionate, optimistic and impatient . . . Outstanding." —The Economist The landmark exploration of economic prosperity and how the world can escape from extreme poverty for the world's poorest citizens, from one of the world's most renowned economists Hailed by Time as one of the world's hundred most influential people, Jeffrey D. Sachs is renowned for his work around the globe advising economies in crisis. Now a classic of its genre, The End of Poverty distills more than thirty years of experience to offer a uniquely informed vision of the steps that can transform impoverished countries into prosperous ones. Marrying vivid storytelling with rigorous analysis, Sachs lays out a clear conceptual map of the world economy. Explaining his own work in Bolivia, Russia, India, China, and Africa, he offers an integrated set of solutions to the interwoven economic, political, environmental, and social problems that challenge the world's poorest countries. Ten years after its initial publication, The End of Poverty remains an indispensible and influential work. In this 10th anniversary edition, Sachs presents an extensive new foreword assessing the progress of the past decade, the work that remains to be done, and how each of us can help. He also looks ahead across the next fifteen years to 2030, the United Nations' target date for ending extreme poverty, offering new insights and recommendations.

Download or read book Guidelines for Public Expenditure Management written by Mr.Jack Diamond and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1999-07-01 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traditionally, economics training in public finances has focused more on tax than public expenditure issues, and within expenditure, more on policy considerations than the more mundane matters of public expenditure management. For many years, the IMF's Public Expenditure Management Division has answered specific questions raised by fiscal economists on such missions. Based on this experience, these guidelines arose from the need to provide a general overview of the principles and practices observed in three key aspects of public expenditure management: budget preparation, budget execution, and cash planning. For each aspect of public expenditure management, the guidelines identify separately the differing practices in four groups of countries - the francophone systems, the Commonwealth systems, Latin America, and those in the transition economies. Edited by Barry H. Potter and Jack Diamond, this publication is intended for a general fiscal, or a general budget, advisor interested in the macroeconomic dimension of public expenditure management.

Download or read book Improving the Dynamics of Aid written by Benn Eifert and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2005 with total page 39 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper considers approaches towards improving the predictability of aid to low income countries, with a special focus on budget support. In order to accelerate progress towards the Millennium Development Goals, the donor community is increasing aid flows while pushing for more coordination and tighter performance-based selectivity. However, these factors may increase the unpredictability of aid from current levels, which are already high enough to impose significant costs. Predictability is a particular challenge in the area of budget support, which will continue to increase in importance as aid is sought to underpin longer-term recurrent spending commitments. Budget support reduces transactions costs and drains on capacity, but it tends to be more vulnerable to fluctuations than multi-year project support. Poor predictability raises the threat of a low-level equilibrium: countries, budgeting prudently within a medium-term fiscal framework, will discount commitments; donors will see few funding gaps, so pledges will fall. With some countries discounting aid commitments in formulating budgets, some already see signs of this happening. To improve predictability, donors must extend their funding horizons. However, even if this can be done, several major issues will remain at country level. First, how can countries deal with residual short-run volatility of disbursements relative to commitments? Second, can donors lengthen commitment horizons to individual developing countries without excessive risk of misallocating aid? Third, within a country's overall aid envelope, how should donors set the shares of project aid and budget support? Finally, the paper considers the other main approach to budget support, the output or outcome-driven approach of the European Union. The paper concludes that many of these issues can be addressed. Simple spending and savings rules built around a buffer reserve fund of 2-4 months of imports can help smooth public spending. Aid can be pre-committed several years ahead with only small efficiency losses, using a strategy of "flexible pre-commitment." Guidelines can be set to limit the volatility of budget support while keeping it performance-based, and past experience can be used more systematically to develop "outcome" norms to better guide aid allocation.

Download or read book Financing Health Services in Developing Countries written by John S. Akin and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 1987-01-01 with total page 104 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This report discusses several different approaches that support reforming health care services in developing countries. For some time now, health care services have been supported by government funds. As demands for improving health care services continue to increase additional demands will be placed on governments to respond. This, however, will not be easy. Slow economic growth and record budget deficits in the 1980's have forced reductions in public spending. Alternative approaches to finance health care services are needed. Such possible changes could involve: decentralization of federal government involvement; the promotion of nongovernment involvement; the imposition of user fees; and, establishing health insurance. Finally, the role of the Bank in pursuing new financing strategies is discussed.

Download or read book Disease Control Priorities Third Edition Volume 9 written by Dean T. Jamison and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2017-12-06 with total page 426 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the culminating volume in the DCP3 series, volume 9 will provide an overview of DCP3 findings and methods, a summary of messages and substantive lessons to be taken from DCP3, and a further discussion of cross-cutting and synthesizing topics across the first eight volumes. The introductory chapters (1-3) in this volume take as their starting point the elements of the Essential Packages presented in the overview chapters of each volume. First, the chapter on intersectoral policy priorities for health includes fiscal and intersectoral policies and assembles a subset of the population policies and applies strict criteria for a low-income setting in order to propose a "highest-priority" essential package. Second, the chapter on packages of care and delivery platforms for universal health coverage (UHC) includes health sector interventions, primarily clinical and public health services, and uses the same approach to propose a highest priority package of interventions and policies that meet similar criteria, provides cost estimates, and describes a pathway to UHC.