Page 2 - Human Development Indicator News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Medium-term expenditure frameworks can be useful only when they are based on comprehensive medium-term development plans.

Countries with strong ties to the Bretton Woods institutions – the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank – have adopted the medium-term expenditure framework as the main driver of budget policy. Like macroeconomic management orthodoxy, the Washington consensus forms the basis of this approach. The World Bank’s push for the adoption of frameworks has been subtle. For instance since 1991, they have been an integral part of the Bank’s products such as technical assistance, lending operations, and analytical and advisory services. The thrust of medium-term expenditure frame...

Governments in most developing countries use medium-term expenditure frameworks as fiscal policy instruments to match the imperatives of policy, planning and budgeting over the medium-term horizon. South Africa adopted the framework in 1998.

Budgeting is where we seem to have lost the plot. We lack a cogent development plan that drives the budget process, says Matthew Kofi Ocran.