Public Financial Management - Andrew Lawson

This video accompanies the GSDRC Professional Development Reading pack on Public Financial Management, available at: http://www.gsdrc.org/professional-dev...

What is Public Financial Management (PFM)?
PFM refers to the set of laws, rules, systems and processes used by sovereign nations (and sub-national governments), to mobilise revenue, allocate public funds, undertake public spending, account for funds and audit results. It encompasses a broader set of functions than financial management and is commonly conceived as a cycle of six phases, beginning with policy design and ending with external audit and evaluation (Figure 1). A large number of actors engage in this “PFM cycle” to ensure it operates effectively and transparently, whilst preserving accountability.

Andrew Lawson is Co-Director of Fiscus Limited and was previously the Director of the Centre for Aid and Public Expenditure (CAPE) at the Overseas Development Institute, London. He is an economist, with an extensive experience of PFM issues, having worked in ministries of finances in Europe, Latin America, Africa and the South Pacific and having supported PFM reform processes in many countries in development and in transition. He runs capacity development initiatives on PFM for governments and development agencies, and he is a signatory of the Doing Development Differently manifesto, which advocates a more context-sensitive, locally owned and problem-driven approach to development.