As previously announced, Phase IV of the PEFA Program (2012-2017) will start on 1, July 2012. Among the initiatives that will be introduced progressively is a new “Process Quality Endorsement” called PEFACHECK: this will come into effect on May 1st, 2012 (with a transition period for ongoing PEFA evaluations until 31, December 2012).
PEFA assessments have been undertaken in more than 126 countries worldwide and the Framework is accepted both as a global public good and as the standard PFM performance evaluation tool. A growing community of PFM practitioners and researchers use PEFA data, which means that it is essential for the PEFA program to maintain confidence in the quality of the reports. Hence the PEFA Steering Committee has introduced “PEFACHECK”: this will be an endorsement issued to indicate compliance with good practices in the process of undertaking an assessment, as a proxy for the quality of the content of the report.
The PEFA Secretariat will issue the PEFACHECK logo to the manager or lead agency of the assessment (which can then be included in the report), provided that a report submitted for review fulfills all the formal requirements of the six criteria relating to the quality assurance process.
Reports produced before the introduction of the PEFACHECK (with a transition period until 1 January 2013) will be marked as ‘Not Applicable’ (N/A) in the Secretariat’s database.
The systematic and standardized approach on process quality through the PEFACHECK will create an incentive for all stakeholders to adhere to the PEFA Quality Assurance process, and the six criteria have been formulated by the PEFA partners to ensure that the good practices which support the underlying principles of the PEFA Framework are followed:
- participation of the country authorities in planning and implementing the assessment
- involvement of country PFM stakeholders in the peer-review of the final evaluation
- review by the PEFA Secretariat of the planning process (to ensure the quality of the overall process).
We invite you to read the PEFACHECK note attached and to consult our website: www.pefa.org for further information. Any inquiries or comments should be addressed to services@pefa.org.
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