Our Approach

PFM Transformation:
From Capabilities to Action

Five interconnected pillars that take African governments from one-off training to systemic, locally led reform. Each pillar reinforces the other. Capability development feeds country diagnostics; diagnostics produce reform roadmaps; technology integration enables them at scale; thought leadership builds the political constituency for change.

1

Develop Capabilities of PFM Practitioners

Professional training and certification anchored at the Africa School of Governance, with the aim of building a continental cadre of PFM reform leaders.

  • Executive short courses (2–4 weeks) for senior PFM officials
  • 6-month Executive Certificate in Public Finance Leadership
  • 2-year MPA in Public Financial Management
  • Africa-context training materials, co-designed with partners
  • Target: 500+ certified practitioners by Year 5, networked across the continent
2

Strengthen Systems Through Technical Assistance

Country-level PFM diagnostics that produce actionable roadmaps owned and driven by government.

  • Map flows of funds, institutions and decision rights
  • Diagnose PFM roles, incentives and bottlenecks at sector level
  • Apply and adapt established tools (PEFA, CPIA, FinHealth, FinEd)
  • Focus on budget execution, use of country systems and PHC financing
  • Engage finance, sector and oversight stakeholders together
3

Integrate Technology

Practical guidance on where technology earns its keep in public finance and where it doesn't.

  • AI-powered budget analytics and real-time expenditure monitoring
  • Blockchain-backed procurement transparency
  • FinTech for revenue mobilisation and benefits delivery
  • Digital identity to underpin social protection
  • Capacity to negotiate, procure and govern technology contracts
4

Build Reform Momentum

This is where diagnostics become institutional change through sustained, embedded implementation support.

  • Co-create reform roadmaps with finance and sector counterparts
  • 1–2 years of accompaniment, not drive-by assistance
  • African practitioners deployed in-country alongside government teams
  • Close collaboration with MDBs, regional bodies and existing programmes
  • Continuity through political and administrative transitions
5

Convene Expertise

Building the political constituency for PFM reform through peer learning and continental thought leadership.

  • Annual PFPR Policy Forum for Ministers of Finance and senior officials
  • Flagship publications, working papers and reform reviews
  • Digital knowledge platform connecting practitioners across the continent
  • Peer-learning networks rooted in African experience
  • Convening across the PFM and sector communities that today operate in silos

PFPR has a distinctive contribution. There is an already rich ecosystem of institutions working on public finance in Africa and a parallel ecosystem working on sector financing. The two rarely converge on how budgets are actually formulated, executed and accounted for inside health, education or social protection. PFPR's role is to connect those strands into a coherent, Africa-owned programme that translates upstream PFM knowledge into sector-level action. This is the gap that PFPR aims to close.

Self-Sustainability

A Path to African Ownership

PFPR's long-term viability rests on African governments investing in their own fiscal excellence. Three sequential stages move the initiative from donor-supported launch to continent-led institution.

Build

Build Endogenous Capacity

Invest deliberately in the people and institutions that will own the reform agenda once external support tapers.

  • Professional training and certification for PFM officials at all levels from junior analysts through permanent secretaries
  • Strengthen the institutional core: Ministries of Finance, Treasuries, Supreme Audit Institutions and parliamentary oversight
  • Empower African reform champions through peer learning, secondments and twinning with leading institutions
  • Develop a continental practitioner network
Secure

Secure Domestic Financing

As the model proves itself, shift the cost base from external assistance to domestic resources, thus using PFPR's own work to generate the savings that fund it.

  • Embed PFM reform costs in national budgets from the outset, rather than as a bolt-on
  • Use domestic resource mobilisation gains, the dividend of better PFM, to finance further reform
  • Introduce country co-financing for executive training, starting at a 50% participant cost-share
  • Create PFPR reform funds that reinvest efficiency savings into the next cycle
  • Align with the G7's renewed emphasis on strengthening partner-country financing capacity
Foster

Foster African Leadership

Transition from donor-led TA to a self-financed, African-led institution that the continent owns and pays for, creating something like the OECD-equivalent for African public finance.

  • Country membership and subscription model
  • Regional centres of excellence and peer networks for continuous learning
  • Transition from donor-led TA to locally managed reform cycles
  • Citizen demand and parliamentary accountability that sustains fiscal discipline beyond any single administration
  • Formal integration into AU and AfDB frameworks as the continental hub for PFM excellence
PFPR — Public Finance for Prosperity & Resilience
Founding Partners

An African Initiative,
Backed by African Institutions

PFPR was conceived, designed and launched by Vanguard Economics in 2024–2025, and is delivered in partnership with the Africa School of Governance. Together they provide the institutional foundation for PFPR's first phase.