CABRI's aims at achieving its main objective by organising activities that arm African countries with practical ways to undertake reforms in public finance management and deepen and transfer capacity in budgeting institutions across the contient.

CABRI provides country support through:

• Training workshops/working sessions: Countries are keen to use policy practitioners who have practical experience on aspects of public finance management. Through the use of practitioners who can share their experience, countries will be able to learn how to practically apply theoretical/conceptual frameworks.
  
  
• Dialogues: The dialogues bring together senior budget officials from a small group of countries and are structured in a way as to allow an in-depth analysis of the issues resulting in specific actions and recommendations in an informal setting. For the first time in CABRI discussions, the dialogues will investigate policy-making, budgeting and monitoring and evaluation in the Infrastructure, Education, Health and Social Security sectors.

Links

1. Training Workshop and Study Tour
2. Infrastructure Dialogue

In 2008, CABRI collaborated with the OECD to include African countries’ budgeting practices and procedures in the database. Twenty-six African countries have completed the 99-question survey, which encompasses the budget cycle and includes a section on aid management. The survey results have undergone a peer review process and have been analysed by the LSE and compiled in a joint publication with the African Development Bank.

The purpose of this initiative is to provide:

• A cross-country analysis based on the survey findings
• A summary of the key results of the survey on a case by case basis

The publication is the first in the series of African Budget Practices and Procedures Reports and was launched on 7 April 2009, at the 5th Annual CABRI Seminar.

Links

1. Results of the CABRI/OECD Africa Budget Survey
2. 2008 CABRI/AfDB Report on Budget Practices and Procedures in Africa

The South African National Treasury and CABRI co-hosted the African Policy Seminar on Fiscal Elements of Growth and Development. The seminar brought together senior policy-makers and G-20 members to engage in debates on current thinking and to discuss future opportunities for fiscal policy in commodity based economies and for investing in economic infrastructure.

Using the Paris Declaration as a starting point, and notably the principle on alignment, CABRI has argued for aid to be aligned to countries' public finance management systems in order to:

• Improve budget transparency and comprehensiveness
• Improve governments' allocative efficiency and accountability
• Strengthen countries' financial systems.