This paper synthesises the key findings from case studies in five countries (Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda), each of which examined how public expenditure management has been linked to poverty reduction policy goals. Each of the case study countries entered the 1990s with a pattern of public expenditure in which the efficiency and effectiveness of public expenditure was very low, and its benefits went mainly to the non-poor. The case studies examines a common set of hypotheses regarding the variables that might have an influence on the poverty focus of public expenditure. These variables are clustered under three main thematic headings: the institutional framework; the collection and use of information and analysis on poverty; and; the degree and nature of public participation in the budget process.
Bibliography: Overseas Development Institute, London, May 2002.
