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Accepted Paper:
Thinking and working politically - macroeconomic and fiscal mangement in Sierra Leone
Bryn Welham (Overseas Development Institute)
Paper short abstract:
The paper documents the experience of applying a PDIA approach to public financial management reform in post-Ebola Sierra Leone. It documents the experience of problem identification; iteration of solutions; failure and success in supporting a tangible reform process within the Ministry of Finance.
Paper long abstract:
Sierra Leone is the kind of post-conflict, low-capacity and politically-challenging fragile state where institutional development is most needed. It is also the kind of place where it is most difficult to deliver. In terms of public financial management (PFM), after a decade of donor-funded support to system and institution building, progress on reform has stalled. While some basic procedures are in place, many important PFM processes remain weakly institutionalised and subject to heavy political involvement. Furthermore, despite the shared rhetoric of 'post-Ebola recovery' and 'building back better', the government's commitment to a PFM reform agenda determined primarily by donors is increasingly uncertain. Donors themselves are losing patience with channelling support to and through government systems.
The paper documents the experience of applying a PDIA approach to PFM reform in Sierra Leone from 2015 onwards. It documents the process of supporting government-led reform in macroeconomic and fiscal management: the experience of problem identification; the iteration of different solutions; adaptation of solutions to a changing context; and the overall success (and failure) of the reforms. The example showcases how a combination of technical knowledge, careful stakeholder engagement and political awareness was needed to take forward the reform. It contrasts the experience of this reform with the progress of more traditional approaches to PFM reform aiming to achieve similar goals. The paper highlights the challenge of explaining and accounting for the reform's success using the frameworks and paradigms typically required by institutional donors who fund PFM reform in Sierra Leone.
Thinking and working politically in practice: learning from success and failure and the implications for future research
Session 1