Public financial management is about getting more from what governments already have. When money is tight, strengthening PFM is one of the highest-return investments Africa can make. PFPR works alongside finance and sector ministries to find the bottlenecks, design reforms together, and stay through implementation until something changes.
PFPR brings together ministries of finance, sector ministries and local governments to build the systems and skills they need to respond when conditions demand it. The work is practical and locally led. It is built to last, embedded in the institutions that will carry it forward.
Five pillars that move African governments from one-off training to lasting reform they lead themselves. Each one feeds the next. Training builds the practitioners who run the country diagnostics. The diagnostics produce reform plans. Technology helps deliver those plans at scale, and convening builds the political support to carry them through.
Five core activities that move African governments from one-off training to lasting reform they lead themselves. Select each one to see what it involves.
Professional training and certification anchored at the Africa School of Governance, with the aim of building a continental cadre of PFM practitioners and reform leaders.
Country-level PFM diagnostics that set a baseline and lead to work that government owns and drives.
Practical guidance on where technology earns its keep in public finance and where it doesn't.
This is where the diagnostics turn into real change, through implementation support that stays for the long haul.
Building the political support for PFM reform through peer learning and shared work across the continent.
PFPR can only last if African governments invest in their own fiscal governance. The path from a donor-supported launch to a continent-led institution runs through three stages, moving step by step from outside support to full African ownership.
Invest deliberately in the people and institutions that will own the reform agenda once external support tapers.
As the model proves itself, the cost shifts from outside assistance to domestic resources. PFPR's own work generates the savings that pay for it.
Over time, once the model is proven, the aim is to move PFPR to a shareholder structure, where African governments invest in and own the institution that serves them.
Transition from donor-led TA to a self-financed, African-led institution that the continent owns.
Vanguard Economics created and launched PFPR in 2024–2025, and delivers it in partnership with the Africa School of Governance. The two provide the institutional base for PFPR's first phase.
