The Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI), a peer learning network of senior budget officials in Africa, is undertaking a programme of work on improving efficiency in spending with regards to education in Africa. The programme of work culminated in a CABRI Dialogue on the planning, financing and management of education expenditure. The Education Dialogue was the third in a series of sector dialogues. CABRI has established dialogues as an additional peer learning mechanism comprising thematic seminars for a small number of countries to allow for in-depth exchange of knowledge and experience.

The dialogue aimed towards sharing ideas and obtaining an in-depth understanding of the education challenge and to find better and more efficient ways to plan, finance and manage public spending in the education sector. The dialogue also aimed at improving the communication and mutual understanding between Finance and line ministries.

The Education Dialogue focused on 3 important areas of education finance, targeted to the needs of officials from the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Education.

The following research papers are available:

Understanding the Education Challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa: Policy and Institutions (Keynote paper)

Efficiency in Education Spending for Learning Outcomes (Keynote paper)

Innovative Financing for Education (Keynote paper)

Decentralisation and Institutional Reforms for Basic Education in Ghana (Case study)

Three Financing Mechanisms to Improve Education Outcomes in Mozambique (Case study)

Below are the presentations given during the dialogue:

Understanding the Education Challenge in Sub-Saharan Africa: Policy and Institutions

Efficiency in Education Spending

Innovative Finance in Education

A Ghana Case-study of Decentralisation and Institutional Reforms for Basic Education

Three Financing Mechanisms to Improve Education Outcomes in Mozambique

High-Level Projections for Education (HIPE) - A Resource Planning Tool for Effective Policy Makers

Impact Evaluations for Education Policy - JPAL

TCAI: Lessons from First Endline

CABRI's three-year Strategic Plan gives an overview af all CABRI Programmes from 2012 to 2015. It can be downloaded here.

Supporting Fiscal Transparency and Participation Reforms in Africa

Fiscal transparency and participation is crucial for good governance and macroeconomic stability. In the past decade, numerous studies have been published about the role of transparency in good governance. Findings point to a possible link between fiscal transparency, lower corruption levels and better socio-economic development (Islam, 2003; Bellver & Kaufman, 2005; Glennerster & Shin, 2008). It has also been argued that the lack of transparency and oversight has contributed to the unsustainable expansion of credit markets which led to the financial crisis (OECD, 2009). Greater budget transparency can lead the way for greater participation and oversight in the budget and policy process from citizens, civil society, parliaments and supreme audit institutions. Especially in countries that are aid dependent or rely heavily on resource revenues, fiscal transparency and participation can help to regain accountability of governments to their citizens, civil society, parliaments and supreme audit institutions. Therefore, fiscal transparency is an intrinsic element of good public financial governance and forms a key part of the public financial management reform agenda.

The CABRI health sector programme looks at the planning, financing and expenditure management in the health sector. The programme looks at how strengthening the linkage between Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Health can contribute to higher value for money. Understanding the complementary role of national and sector level in policy formulation and budget processes and making these processes more efficient and better integrated should foster the provision of quality services for better health outcomes.

In order to promote economic growth and sustainable development an effective state should be able to mobilise revenue, borrow prudently, plan and manage the spending of public money in an effective and efficient way and to account for the use of funds and the results achieved. Sound public finance management (PFM) contributes to these outcomes through its elements of transparency, participation, responsiveness, oversight, accountability and predictability. These are elements of good public financial governance (GPFG) - a prerequisite for a state’s economic and social development and a focal area of CABRI’s work.

In this regard, CABRI, the African Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI) and the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), have jointly produced  a research study on GPFG with the support from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ GmbH), German Technical Cooperation.

CABRI's aims at achieving its main objective by organising activities that arm African countries with practical ways to undertake reforms in public finance management and deepen and transfer capacity in budgeting institutions across the contient.

In 2008, CABRI collaborated with the OECD to include African countries’ budgeting practices and procedures in the database. Twenty-six African countries have completed the 99-question survey, which encompasses the budget cycle and includes a section on aid management. The survey results have undergone a peer review process and have been analysed by the LSE and compiled in a joint publication with the African Development Bank.

7 September 2007
Durban, South Africa

The South African National Treasury and CABRI co-hosted the African Policy Seminar on Fiscal Elements of Growth and Development. The seminar brought together senior policy-makers and G-20 members to engage in debates on current thinking and to discuss future opportunities for fiscal policy in commodity based economies and for investing in economic infrastructure.

Using the Paris Declaration as a starting point, and notably the principle on alignment, CABRI has argued for aid to be aligned to countries' public finance management systems in order to:

• Improve budget transparency and comprehensiveness
• Improve governments' allocative efficiency and accountability
• Strengthen countries' financial systems.

Ensuring value for money in infrastructure projects is a challenge for African states if they want to bridge the infrastructure gap and deliver basic public services to their populations. In many African countries infrastructure projects are publicly-funded and represent a substantial portion of the annual budget. Weaknesses such as difficulties in appraising projects that have the highest returns, access to financing - including the rise of financing and delivery by the private sector- and low execution rates have plagued the management of public infrastructure projects.