The COVID-19 crisis has reiterated that public financial management must continuously evolve if governments are to mitigate and manage unforeseen and uncertain budgetary pressures. On 8 October, we hosted a webinar in collaboration with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on “COVID-19 response to resilience: Managing extraordinary budgetary pressures in African and OECD countries”.

The webinar was informed by CABRI’s COVID-19 Public Finance Response Monitor and the OECD’s Key Policy Responses tracker and reflected on budgetary responses to the COVID-19 crisis across African and OECD countries. Attention was given to budgetary tools that have been effective in responding to COVID-19 and can be leveraged to improve future crisis responses. Challenges and opportunities officials may face when preparing for upcoming budget processes were identified, as well as the medium-term issues likely to remain relevant for successive budget rounds.

The speakers were CABRI’s Executive Secretary, Neil Cole, Andrew Blazey, Deputy Director, Budgeting and Public Expenditures Division at the OECD, Yuri van Loon, Senior Policy Adviser at the Ministry of Finance, Netherlands and Alex Amankwah-Poku, Head of Budget Development and Reforms at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, Ghana.