AFE 20 YEARS ANNIVERSARY

Steadfast Pursuit: 20 Years of Building Macroeconomic Capacity in East Africa

To commemorate the achievements achieved and capture invaluable lessons learned, AFRITAC East prepared five notes covering the key workstreams on public financial management (PFM) and macrofiscal policy (MFP), revenue mobilization, financial supervision and regulation, national accounts statistics, and government financial statistics. These notes highlight some of AFRITAC East’s successes over the past 20 years and distill the collective experiences and insights gained across these critical domains. These notes can facilitate the exchange of knowledge and promote the adoption of proven strategies, thereby fostering capacity building and continued progress within the region.

Excerpt—Advancing Public Financial Management Reforms, 2002–2022

The capacity development (CD) Delivered by the Regional Technical Assistance Center for East Africa (AFRITAC East) over the past 20 years has covered an evolving range of public financial management (PFM) and macrofiscal policy (MFP) topics. These topics span from basic reforms, such as budgetary and accounting classifications, cash management, and budget execution issues, including commitment control and dealing with arrears, to intermediate reforms like the medium-term budget framework (MTBF), fiscal forecasting, program budgeting, public investment management (PIM), comprehensive financial and fiscal reporting, and treasury single accounts. More advanced reforms have included fiscal risks and accrual accounting. These reforms build on the development of PFM infrastructure projects such as integrated financial management information systems (IFMIS) and the establishment of sound PFM legal and regulatory frameworks. AFRITAC East’s CD has been delivered through a mix of technical assistance (TA) missions, which combine diagnostic and hands-on country-specific CD with regular in-country training, regional workshops, and peer learning activities.

Excerpt—Supporting Revenue Administration Reforms, 2002–2023

This chapter is a reflection of the establishment, evolution, and operations of AFRITAC East over the past two decades (2002-2022), with a specific focus on the Revenue Administration (RA) workstream. It offers insights into the capacity development (CD) work undertaken in the region, highlights key achievements, challenges encountered, lessons learned, and maps the way forward. RAs are crucial for ensuring lawful tax collection, facilitating trade, and enforcing regulations. They are expected to maintain high standards of efficiency in service to mobilize revenue needed to fund public services, decrease reliance on foreign aid, and reduce fiscal deficits.

Excerpt—Strengthening Financial Supervision and Regulation, 2002–2023

Since IMF’s Regional Technical Assistance Center for East Africa (AFRITAC East) started its activities in 2002, member countries have made substantial improvements to promote financial stability through sound regulations and supervisory practices. This commemorative note focuses on financial supervision and regulation and shows how AFRITAC East’s activities during the past 20 years helped to upgrade the financial sector regulations and frameworks.

Excerpt—Strengthening National Accounts Statistics, 2002–2022

Comprehensive and high-quality national accounts statistics are essential for government decision making and analysis of the economy. Over the past 20 years, countries in the East Africa region have made substantial improvements in the compilation and dissemination of national accounts statistics despite challenges. Low- and middle-income countries often experience five key challenges: (1) lack of political will and understanding of the need for sound national accounts statistics, (2) absence or poor implementation of statistical legislation, (3) insufficient resources, and (4) difficulty in adapting the System of National Accounts methodological framework to the country’s specific situation and available resources.

Excerpt—Expanding Coverage of Fiscal Statistics, 2012–2023

Comprehensive and high-quality fiscal statistics are essential for government decision making and analysis of fiscal risks and vulnerabilities. In the past 10 years, Africa Regional Technical Assistance Center for East Africa member countries have made remarkable progress in strengthening capacity to compile government finance statistics (GFS) and public sector debt statistics (PSDS). This acceleration has been driven by two main factors: the signing of the protocol to establishing the East African Community Monetary Union (EAMU) in 2013; and the beginning of a comprehensive GFS and PSDS capacity development (CD) program that started with the creation of a resident GFS/PSDS advisor position at AFRITAC East in 2014. This was followed by an intensive CD program in the form of dedicated training programs, technical assistance (TA) missions, and regional workshops. All AFRITAC East member countries have participated in these CD activities.