The Financial Management Umbrella Program (FMUP) supports reforms to public financial management systems in 62 countries, including eight new to our program in 2024. Now in our third year of operation, FMUP has informed over $6.89 billion1 in World Bank lending, highlighting our catalytic influence on the ground. Since its inception, FMUP has received more than $86 million in total signed contributions from donors, of which $48 million has been allocated through 81 grants. In 2024, donor support grew by 13 percent, up from $75 million in 2023.
Following is the executive summary from our 2024 annual report. For details, please download the full report.
FMUP continued to deliver global public goods that are improving and even redefining key aspects of public financial management (PFM), ranging from new ways to approach financial management reforms to delivering the world’s first-ever public sector sustainability standard. The Reimagining Public Finance initiative is investigating a novel approach for PFM reformers to use, and companion research is being produced in the lead-up to a planned global conference in 2025. In partnership with the International Public Sector Accounting Standards Board (IPSASB), the world’s first Sustainability Reporting Standard, Climate-Related Disclosures, is being developed. The exposure draft of the new standards was released for public comment in October 2024. Additionally, GovEnable, a framework for co-creating solutions to public finance bottlenecks, came out with a set of tools in 2024 and is now influencing the design and implementation of $1.5 billion in World Bank operations for scaled impact.
FMUP professional development programs have cumulatively reached 4,186 people, 46 percent of them women, helping to enable reform implementation, make reforms sustainable, and spur new thinking. Capacity building initiatives take the form of stand-alone country-level and regional programs, such as the public financial management program for the Middle East and North Africa (PFM for MENA), which has reached 1,060 people, comprising policymakers, legislators, budget officers, and accountants. Many FMUP country-level advisory programs worldwide are connected to complementary training, reaching hundreds more.
Technical assistance and analytical work have supported system transformations in 57 client governments. Guidance ranges from how to set up new systems to helping shape laws and regulations. In Malaysia, technical guidance helped with the adoption of a new state-level policy moving the State of Sarawak to results-based budgeting. In Armenia, FMUP supported the country’s Investment Committee, which reviews major government project proposals, helping them improve the quality of proposals and include climate considerations.
Public servants in FMUP client countries are raising their accounting and auditing standards to international levels with FMUP-supported guidance and training. In Timor-Leste, for example, a roadmap for moving to International Public Sector Accounting Standards is being prepared by the director general of Treasury with FMUP support. In Central Asia, FMUP supports technical assistance for three countries—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, and Uzbekistan—on upgrading approaches and professional skills to strengthen their supreme audit institutions, which is critical for increasing transparency and trust.
State-owned enterprise (SOE) reforms are well underway in more than a dozen client countries, where teams are executing strategies to improve SOE governance, oversight, and performance. Work includes landscape and governance analysis, advising on legal frameworks and ownership policy, strengthening SOE ownership entities, and providing professional development for boards and management as well as enhancing transparency and disclosure, including sustainability reporting. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, we helped develop a comprehensive SOE reform action plan and in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, we delivered the country’s first-ever leadership training for SOE board members and other executives.
FMUP has been a driving force in advancing climate-smart public finance, delivering impactful solutions at both global and country levels. Cumulatively, we have delivered more than 20 climate-related global knowledge products and diagnostic tools across seven thematic areas, supported 25 country-level advisory engagements, and piloted climate-smart governance tools in more than 20 cases. Additionally, FMUP facilitated 38 training activities and engaged over 160 government officials from 90 countries through peer learning events under the Coalition of Finance Ministers for Climate Action.
FMUP also leads in leveraging PFM to advance gender equality, actively supporting 23 client countries in doing so in 2024. In addition, all FMUP projects incorporate gender considerations into professional development initiatives, ensuring both women and men are being included. FMUP’s gender-related work has also reached more than a dozen additional countries through World Bank projects worth $4.26 billion.
With a strong portfolio of projects and strong strategic and financial support from our partners, FMUP has become a pivotal enabler of transformational improvements in PFM systems and capabilities around the world. As countries move along the path to international standards in PFM, their ability to deliver for their citizens increases. Improvements that our client countries are making lay the necessary foundation for achieving better (and greener) development outcomes, for doing a better job of providing services to people, and for attracting investments. With 62 countries in our portfolio—and counting – it’s clear that there is a great appetite for moving in this direction.