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Reimagining public finances. Making public resources work for development outcomes

September 29 - 30, 2025

Add to Calendar 29-09-2025 16:20 30-09-2025 16:20 America/New_York Reimagining public finances. Making public resources work for development outcomes Hello,\n\nThis is a reminder to join us virtually on World Bank: Reimagining public finances. Making public resources work for development outcomes \n\nAbout the event: September 29 - 30, 2025 \n\nGo to event page: https://www.worldbank.org/en/events/2025/07/29/reimagining-public-finance--making-public-resources-work-for-dev \n\nWe look forward to seeing you! \n\n WORLD BANK - https://www.worldbank.org \nDevelopment Events Brought to You Live Online
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This event will be streamed here in

Date & Time

September 29 - 30, 2025 ET

Location

World Bank Headquarters

In-Person

RSVP HERE

The conference will bring together leading government reformers, practitioners, researchers, and development partners to share insights and discuss the future direction of reform to public finance.  The ‘Reimagining Public Finance’ initiative aims to rethink public financial management reforms to ensure that they are designed and implemented in a way that best supports governments’ fiscal and public policy objectives and the achievement of development outcomes.

The conference will be based on three key questions:

  1. Why reimagine public finance? A reflection on lessons learned over the last 25 years of public financial management reform.
  2. What is the role of public finance in achieving development outcomes and what are the key bottlenecks that prevent this from happening?
  3. How can these bottlenecks be addressed in practice to unlock the potential of public finance?

The conference will provide the opportunity to engage with these questions, drawing from the first phase of research and global consultation and interacting with a proposed outcome-led approach for future public finance reforms. 

Day 1 :  29th September 2025

  

PART 1: Why reimagine Public Finance? A reflection on lessons learned over the last 25 years of public financial management reform

  

08.00 -08.45

Breakfast & Registration

  

08:45 - 09:00

Opening

  

09:00- 09:30

 

Plenary.  Making Public Finance Work for Policy Outcomes

 

This conversation between two leaders in public finance will explore the relationship between public finance and policy decision making from their personal and institutional experience. They will discuss how to manage policy trade-offs in times of reduced fiscal space, including how to support fiscal sustainability while providing services to citizens, and how governments can organize to deliver on policy priorities.

 

  
 

9.30 –

10.30

 

Plenary. Public Financial Management in the 21st Century: Evolution, Evidence and Practice

 

This session will offer a retrospective look at the evolution of public financial management reforms over the past two decades. Key milestones, evidence, innovations, and challenges that have shaped the current landscape will be laid out, and public financial management practitioners will share reflections on what this has meant in practice

 

Panelists:

  • Florence Kuteesa, Public Sector Budget Expert and former Uganda Budget Director
  • Nicola Smithers, first head of PEFA Secretariat and former World Bank
  • Philipp Krause, visiting fellow at the University of Potsdam
  • Paolo de Renzio, Senior Lecturer, Fundação Getulio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro (Moderator & Presenter)
  

10.30-11.00

Break

  

11.00 - 11.45

 

Plenary. Debating the Case for Reimagining Public Finance

 

This high-level panel will delve into the role of public finance in development outcomes and the need for renewed approaches to public financial management, debating the pros and cons of established and evolving approaches to reform, ongoing challenges and the drivers of successful transformations.

 

Panelists:

  • Shanta Devarajan, Professor of the practice of international development, Georgetown University,
  • Gabriel Yorio, Vice President, IADB and former Vice Minister of Finance, Mexico
  • Marc Robinson, international consultant specializing in public finance and reforms

 

  

11.45 - 12.30

 

Plenary. Sharing Reasons Why

 

An interactive session exploring the reasons why participants support the need for rethinking established approaches to PFM reform.  

 

  • Chigomezgo Mtegha-Gelders, Team Lead, Public Financial Management & Macroeconomics, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, UK.
  • Philippe Bruegger, Program Manager, SECO Economic and Development, Government Administration, Switzerland
  • Mr. Heewoo Kang, Director, Center for Performance Evaluation & Management, Korea Institute of Public Finance (KIPF)
  • Margaux Lelong, Reimaging Public Finance team and Public Sector Specialist, World Bank

 

  

12.30-13.30

Lunch

  

PART 2: What is the role of public finance in achieving development outcomes and what are the key bottlenecks that prevent this from happening? 

  

13.30 - 14.15

 

Plenary.  The Global Discussion on Outcome-Led Approaches to Public Financial Management

 

This session will discuss ongoing efforts by international organizations to better link public financial management to the achievement of development outcomes and introduce the outcome led framework for PFM developed under the Reimagining Public Finance Initiative.

 

Panelists:

  • Orria Goñi Delzangles, Lead Advisor, Public Finance for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG's), United Nations Developmetn Programme (UNDP)
  • Carolina Renteria, Public Financial Management Division Chief, IMF
  • Tim Williamson, Global Lead for Public Finance Manangement, World Bank

 

  

14.15- 15.30

Breakout Sessions. Deep Dives into the Role of Public Financial Management in Achieving Development Outcomes in Sectors

 

Parallel sessions will focus on issues in public finances in selected development outcome areas (universal healthcare; water and the energy transition; mobilizing revenue and economic resilience; and basic education for all).  Each session will discuss common delivery challenges and associated public financial management bottlenecks within the sector and approaches to addressing them.

 

  

15.30-16.00

Break

  

16.00 - 17.00

Plenary.  Sectoral Implications of Using an Outcome-Led Lens in Public Financial Management Reform.

 

This session will explore the implications of using an outcome-led lens in PFM reform across sectors from the perspective of sector practitioners.

 

Panelists:

  • Hélène Barroy, Senior Public Finance Expert, World Health Organization,
  • Antonia Graf, Junior Professor for Global Environmental Governance, Institute for Political Science (Science Po)
  • Yogita Mumssen, Water Global Manager, World Bank
  

17.00 - 17.15

Recap of the day

 

17.30 - 19.00

Reception

  

Day 2 Agenda

 9/30/25

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
8:45-9:30

Plenary: Setting the Scene for Outcome-Led Reform of PFM

This session will introduce the day ahead and set out the contours of an outcome-focused, problem-driven, people-centered adaptive and iterative approach to putting outcome-led reform into practice.  

  • Matt Andrews, Senior Lecturer in International Development at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government
  • Jordi Baños-Rovira, Public Finance Specialist, World Bank
          
9:30-10:15

Interactive. Public Finance Problem Solving

An interactive session where participants will engage in an interactive session to solve a PFM bottleneck by exploring the underlying causes and the stakeholders involved, and potential steps towards a solution.

 

          
10:15-11:15

Plenary.  Leading and Managing Outcome-Led Reform

 

This session will present examples and examine the practical implications of an outcome-led approach for those leading and managing PFM reform.  What do outcome-led, problem focused reforms look like? How would such reforms be designed, organized and managed differently? What are the roles of reform leaders, managers and teams in making this happen?

 

Panelists:

  • Kay Brown, Executive Secretary, Collaborative Africa Budget Reform Initiative (CABRI)
  • Richard Allen, international consultant and former IMF
  • Manuela Francisco, Global Director, Economic Policy, World Bank (Moderator)  
          
11:15-11:30 Break          
11:30-12:00

Lightning Talks. Country Cases of Innovative Reform

This session will present examples of innovative leadership and support to public finance reform, including sectoral focused and problem- driven reforms and results-based operations in support of reform.

          
12:00-13:00

Plenary.  Financing and Supporting Outcome-Led Reforms

The panel will examine how development partner financing can support outcome-led public financial management reforms and unlock the potential of public finances to deliver development outcomes.  It will highlight how results-based financing instruments can be designed and implemented to provide fiscal space and encourage reform results that unlock the potential of public finance to deliver development outcomes.

          
13:00-13:45 Lunch          
13:45 - 14:30

Innovation Marketplace

An interactive session showcasing organizations’ work and county experience in problem solving approaches, technical assistance and operations, reform diagnostics, and digital innovation in support of public finance reform.

          
14.30 - 15.30

Plenary.  Public Financial Management in a Digital World

This session will explore how technology can be better leveraged to support public financial management for development outcomes in a digital world, moving towards user centric, interoperating, agile digital systems that are sustained and adapted by governments to evolving circumstances.

 

Panelists:

  • Kalpana Kochar, Director, Development Policy and Finance, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
  • Natia Gulua, Budget Director, Georgia
  • Cem Dener, Lead Public Sector Specialist, World Bank
  • Cathal Long, Senior Research Fellow and Head of ODI Digital Public Finance Hub (Moderator)
          
15:30-15.45 Break          
15.45-16.45

Making Public Financial Management Work for Development Outcomes – what are the implications?

 

A discussion between regional World Bank directors on the implications of the conference deliberations on public finance and sectoral engagements across the globe.

Panelists:

  • Hassan Zaman, Prosperity Regional Practice Director for West Africa
  • Lalita Moorty, Prosperity Regional Practice Director for East Asia and the Pacific
  • Oscar Calvo-Gonzales, Prosperity Regional Practice Director for Latin America and the Caribbean
  • Serdar Yilmaz, Practice Manger Public Finance and Procurement, Institutions Global Department (Moderator) 
          
16.45 - 17.00 Closing          

 

Arturo Herrera Gutierrez, Global Director, Governance Global Practice, World Bank.

Arturo Herrera Moderator

Institutions Global Director, The World Bank

Arturo Herrera is the Global Director for Institutions in the Prosperity vertical, World Bank.

Mr. Herrera, a Mexican National, has extensive experience in governance, as a practitioner and from the development and academic perspectives. He joined the World Bank in 2010 as Senior Public Sector Management Specialist in the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region. He held various positions in the Bank including as Sector Manager in LAC, Practice Manager in Governance Global Practice for the LAC and East Asia and the Pacific regions in the Global Unit before leaving the World Bank Group in 2018. 

Between 2018 and 2021 he has held leadership positions in the Government of Mexico as Co-Head of the Finance Team in Presidential Transition Team, Deputy Finance Minister and, most recently, as Minister of Finance and Public Credit. He was also the Chairman of Mexico’s Exchange Commission and Member of the Board of the Central Bank.

As Global Director for Institutions, country-level governance, especially in fragile, conflict and violent settings; maximizing the effectiveness of operational support for public financial management and public procurement; fostering excellence in the Bank's Prosperity vertical work on public sector administration and operational support for legal and judicial reforms.

Mr. Herrera has also taught Monetary and Banking and Macro and Micro Economics at both El Colegio de Mexico and New York University where he completed his doctoral studies in Economics.

FAQs

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