Intervention Summary for DFID Support to Rwanda Public Financial
Management Strategy-Basket Fund (ARIES: 201819)
What support will the UK provide?
The United Kingdom (UK) Government is providing £4.5 million to a multi-donor Basket Fund that
funds the implementation of the Government of Rwanda’s Public Financial Management (PFM) Reform
Strategy.
The ultimate goal of Rwanda’s 2008-2013 PFM Reform Strategy was “to ensure efficient, effective and
accountable use of public resources as a basis for economic development and poverty eradication
through improved service delivery’. The 2008-13 Strategy has recently been superseded by the 20132018 PFM Sector Strategic Plan, which has an overarching objective “to accelerate PFM reforms in
order to have in place an enhanced Public Financial Management system, which is efficient, effective,
transparent and that which reduces opportunities for corruption.”
Other donors to the Basket Fund are the European Union (Euros 2.5m), the Swedish International
Cooperation Agency and the German Development Cooperation (Euro 5m). In 2012, Sweden
discontinued direct financial aid to the Government of Rwanda including to the PFM basket.
The project started in May 2010. It was originally scheduled to end in June 2013, but in 2013 the
Government of Rwanda and basket fund donors (including DFID) agreed a one year extension, to June
2014. This extension ensured continuity of funding while development partners develop plans for
coordinated support to the Government of Rwanda’s 2013-2018 PFM Sector Strategic plan. A one
year no cost extension to the DFID programme was agreed, to accommodate this change.
Why is UK support required?
Since the 1994 genocide, Rwanda has made exceptional progress in rebuilding the public service and
financial management systems. Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) assessments
in 2007 and 2010 demonstrate the progress that has been made, with the number of A and B scores
(high performance) increasing from 11 (out of 28) in 2007 to 18 in 2010. But rebuilding systems and
building sustainable capacity takes time and significant challenges remain. A 2012 independent
evaluation highlighted a number of these remaining challenges, including weaknesses in medium term
budgeting, weak public financial management at sub national level, and a weak internal audit service. 1
Capacity constraints, compounded by high staff turnover2, are another major challenge that will take
many years to address3.
In order to address these challenges in a coordinated manner, the GoR developed a PFM Reform
Strategy covering the period 2008/9-2012/13. The Strategy focused on building human resource
capacity, putting in place modern and effective systems and procedures for effective financial
management and reporting and strengthening the institutional framework in accordance with
international best practices. In 2013, the strategy was superseded by the 2013-2018 PFM Sector
Strategic Plan which prioritises: (i) increasing resource mobilization; (ii) scaling up of the
implementation of an integrated financial management information system; (iii) strengthening PFM
systems at the sub-national level; and, (iv) enhancing training, professionalization and capacity building
across all PFM disciplines.
1
Ecorys, Rwanda: Independent Evaluation of the Implementation of the PFM reform Strategy 2008-2012
Bank 2012, Developing Sustainable Public sector capacity for Rwanda’s Vision 2020
3 DFID Rwanda 2011 Fiduciary Risk Assessment, “Given the extremely low starting point, however, it is a fact that
accounting skills overall in the public sector will remain low for many years to come”
2 World
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The Government of Rwanda has a strong emphasis on delivering more and better services to the
citizens of the country. DFID strongly supports this agenda including through the use of budget
support in the Education and Agriculture sectors, and financial aid to support social cash transfers.
Strengthening public financial management systems can deliver improved value for money from
Government of Rwanda expenditure, and therefore in DFID funds provided as financial aid.
DFID support aims to assist the Government of Rwanda to further strengthen budgeting and
accounting processes and to achieve greater value for money from the resources available. DFID
funding is also supporting Rwanda to increase its own revenues through support to the Rwanda
Revenue Authority (RRA).
What are the expected results?
The goal of the programme is ‘’to improve economic development and poverty eradication in Rwanda.
Its outcome is to ensure efficient and accountable use of Rwandan public resources’’. The programme
is focused on five main outputs:
1. Improving budget formulation, preparation and transparency: a budget classification
meeting international standards; improvements in public access to key fiscal information and
enhanced multiyear perspective in fiscal planning, expenditure policy and budgeting.
2. A system of accounting and reporting that complies with international standards and
statutory requirements: an institutional framework for a national professional accounting
qualification fully functioning; improvements to the Integrated Financial Management
Information System; strengthening capacity of public officers with financial management and
reporting responsibilities; and improvements in quality and timeliness of annual government
financial statements.
3. Rwanda Public Procurement Authority (RPPA) has capacity to oversee public
procurement contracts by all Ministries, Department and Agencies (including the
development of in-country public procurement training capacity).
4. Internal audit units effectively installed in all Ministries, Department and Agencies
(including establishment of audit committees).
5. Public enterprises maintain performance in submitting fiscal reports.
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