The Ministry of Finance of the Slovak Republic is a member of the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Program since April 2019. PEFA brings together eights countries and institutions – some of the most active donors in the area of public finance management. Its main objective is to promote sound management of public finances in order to make more efficient use of public resources and improve the quality of services provided to the citizens, with particular focus on developing countries. The key component of the Program, “the PEFA assessment”, is perceived as the most comprehensive and relevant global diagnostic tool for measuring progress in PFM reforms. Besides maintaining the PEFA assessment framework, the other activities of the Program include promotion of PFM related research and capacity building.
The PEFA Program was founded in 2001 as a partnership between the EU, IMF, World Bank and the governments of France, Norway, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. It operates as a programmatic multi-donor trust fund, which is directed by the Steering Committee comprising the partner organizations. The work of the Program is managed and implemented by the PEFA Secretariat located in Washington DC at the World Bank. Slovakia is the first of the so-called new donors invited to join this prestigious expert initiative. This is largely thanks to Slovakia´s engagement in PFM and experience in supporting PFM reforms in partner countries.
More information about the program and its current and phase – running from 2017 can be found here: https://www.pefa.org/