PEM PAL was formally launched during a conference in Warsaw in April 2006, at a workshop sponsored by the World Bank, OECD, UK DFID, US Treasury Office of Technical Assistance, IMF, WB Institute, National Bank of Poland, and the German aid agencies GTZ and Invent. The idea for the launch of the network responded to a concern that many governments are not spending their resources as effectively and transparently as they might and that institutional controls on public expenditures have room for improvement. PEM PAL has thus been designed to support the enhancement of domestic capacity in public expenditure and financial management. PEMPAL brings together a wealth of human capital from the governments of the region to discuss issues and concrete problems that they are facing. The benefits are myriad – from providing just-in time support to planting seeds of ideas that germinate over time. Moreover, knowledge sharing and subtle peer pressure work together to enhance incentives for institution-building and good governance over the longer term.
PEM PAL is not based on the traditional model of technical assistance, but rather depends on demand-driven “communities of practice” in which officials from different countries but with similar responsibilities develop much of their own agenda and decide how best to share experiences among themselves using networking, electronic learning, and face-to-face meetings. Three Communities of Practice (CoPs) have been established within the PEM PAL network: Budget CoP, Internal Audit CoP, and Treasury/IT CoP. All three CoPs gathered together for the first time in Istanbul in February 2008 to exchange their experiences and to assess the work of PEM PAL. Each CoP had its own meeting, and all three CoPs met to discuss “Monitoring and Evaluation of Public Financial Management Systems”, which was identified by participants as a high priority.
In Istanbul each CoP elected its own executive committee. Before leaving Istanbul, members of the new executive committee of each CoP reported on their plans for the future and identify topics that would interest all three CoPs. The following topics were identified as a priority:
- risks management in the budget cycle
- performance indicators/program budgeting
- internal control in treasury and budget processes
- learning the budget processes of European Union new member states (eg. Slovenia, Slovakia, Baltic states), and
- IT support to management.
The Treasury and Budget Community of Practices have recognized budget classification as one thematic issues they believe their CoPs should in future discuss jointly.
Since Istanbul the CoPs have been working on their detailed plans of activities for the future (videoconference, workshops, seminars, study tours, for example). Some members of the executive committee of Budget CoP also met at the regional OECD Senior Budget Officials meeting in Bucharest in April, 2008. The Center of Excellence in Finance has been working extensively on new PEM PAL web page that will allow more efficient exchanges of experience among peers in CEE and Central Asia region. Currently, more information about PEM PAL can be obtained at www.worldbank.org/pempal.
PEM PAL, the Public Expenditure Management - Peer-Assisted Learning (PEM-PAL) network, is a network of public expenditure management professionals from countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), and Central Asia. The initiative, which was conceptualized in 2005 by the World Bank and the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development, represents an effort to develop capacity and share reform experiences among countries in CEE and Central Asia. At the beginning of 2008, the PEM PAL secretariat has been moved from the World Bank’s headquarters in Washington DC to the Center of Excellence in Finance, Slovenia, thus bringing the network closer to the region. (See a January 25, 2008 blog post for more on the Center.) 
