In many countries, political reforms are a key precondition to alleviating poverty in the long term. In turn, the system of public finances represents one of the most important foundations of a country’s political governance: the state itself must finance public services which it does by collecting taxes and other duties from citizens. The government and parliament have the task of defining the range of public services in the political process and establish the necessary financial framework by devising and implementing a fair financial policy. They must also establish an effective system of internal and external controls to ensure proper enforcement.

In recent years, many developing and transition countries have introduced far-reaching reforms to their system of state financing for different reasons. These reforms aim to increase the state’s potential for raising revenue and find a fairer method of raising taxes as well as to achieve a more transparent and targeted use of resources.

By means of technical cooperation we assist partner countries in their efforts to reform their public finances. The consultancy services we provide to ministries of finance, parliaments, audit offices and subordinate bodies help to create a transparent, legitimate, effective and fair system of public finance – in other words, Good Financial Governance.