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Bangladesh - Public Expenditure and Institutional Review : Towards a Better Quality of Public Expenditure - Main ReportBangladesh has recorded many impressive
 achievements in economic and social development in the last
 decade and a half. It has achieved steady economic growth of
 over 5.5 percent annually (over 6 percent on average since
 2004), maintained relatively low inflation and stable levels
 of domestic debt. More remarkable have been its achievements
 in reducing income poverty and improving social indicators,
 such as life expectancy, fertility control, child mortality,
 literacy and enrollment rates, which, in many cases, exceed
 other countries in the region and outside. In addition to
 standard expenditure policy analysis typically associated
 with Public Expenditure Reviews (PERs), this study combines
 an assessment of key institutional elements that are likely
 to affect budget outcomes with political economy analysis of
 the budget institutions, in order to discover the underlying
 reasons behind the existing equilibrium. While the Public
 Expenditure and Institutional Review (PEIR) does not include
 a description of the technical aspects of Public Financial
 Management (PFM) institutions, it makes use of the numerous
 studies that exist in this area to illustrate their effect
 on incentives. This approach is motivated by
 Bangladesh's long journey of 14 years towards reforming
 PFM systems, which is yet to result in a fundamental break
 with past practices of input-oriented incremental budgeting
 and relatively weak expenditure controls, especially at the
 sector-specific level. This requires different thinking and
 an approach aimed at addressing the incentive structure of
 those who can influence more fundamental reforms in PFM.
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Global Stock-Take of Social Accountability Initiatives for Budget Transparency and Monitoring : Key Challenges and Lessons LearnedBudgets are key documents that lay out a government's economic priorities in terms of policies and programs. Budget transparency refers to the extent and ease with which citizens can access information about and provide feedback on government revenues, allocations, and expenditures. Budget monitoring entails using such information to analyze, critique, and track government finances in order to provide this feedback. Budget transparency is a prerequisite for public participation and accountability, which are instrumental for a democratic and legitimate budget process. Both budget transparency and monitoring efforts also help remove institutional bottlenecks that result in delayed budget allocations, thereby jeopardizing the delivery of vital services to people. Even though they have a far-reaching impact on the lives of people, opening up budgets beyond the exclusive domain of policy makers and administrators is a relatively recent phenomenon that has gained momentum in the last two decades. The stock taking exercise illustrates the range of mechanisms involved in Budget Transparency and Monitoring (BT&M) in different contexts and demonstrates significant promise of influencing governance processes and outcomes. Finally, there is a dearth of literature on initiatives that have not achieved their goals, which would allow lessons to be drawn from these failures. There are incentives to document successes rather than failures, but there is value in documenting failures because this allows for a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities that may be useful to consider when designing future BT&M interventions.
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Sudan : Public Expenditure Review, Synthesis ReportThis synthesis provides a baseline assessment of two fundamental dimensions of public finance in post-CPA Sudan-fiscal management and the alignment of resources to broad-based growth and reduced poverty and inequality. This Public Expenditure Review (PER), the first for Sudan, reflects the initial phase of engagement, with the objective of identifying and supporting improvements in budget planning, monitoring and institutional arrangements so as to contribute to improved resource use and outcomes. The emphasis is on establishing a baseline understanding of key fiscal management and policy challenges, highlighting reform measures for policymakers, and setting the agenda for the next phase of work. This report begins with an introduction. The rest of the synthesis report is structured as follows. Sections 2 and 3 cover the Government of National Unity (GNU) revenue and expenditure management, respectively. Section 4 summarizes key aspects of the PER dialogue on identifying and monitoring pro-poor spending in Sudan. Intergovernmental transfers and fiscal decentralization are the focus of Section 5, and section 6 summarizes the main findings from the PER state case studies. Section 7 is dedicated to fiscal issues in the South.