Publications

The rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic across continents in early 2020 and the imposition of unprecedented measures to fight it had a severe impact on PEMPAL activities. Members were unable to travel to join in-person meetings and faced huge demands in the work environment to tackle the impact of the pandemic. PEMPAL responded quickly by organizing online events (including focused on COVID-19 responses) at the height of pandemic restrictions in April, May, and June 2020, which were well attended and well received by participants. Moving meetings online enabled PEMPAL to go forward with many of its activities (with the exception of the plenary meetings) and remain relevant to its members. 

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 PEMPAL Annual Report records progress in applying good and improved PFM practices developed, promoted, or shared through PEMPAL. During FY20, from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020, 576 participants from 23 PEMPAL member countries attended events, including face-to-face meetings, network exchanges, and videoconference meetings, including smart interactive talks. Strong member country commitment was evident from member countries’ willingness to host PEMPAL events and invest significant resources into their organization (including for the planned plenary meetings in Tashkent and Nur-Sultan, which had to be postponed), as well as from member countries in delegating key staff to attend and contributing to PEMPAL events, developing PEMPAL knowledge products, and serving on the COP Executive Committees. Three of the four face-to-face events in FY20 took place in PEMPAL member countries with some events arranged back-to-back to achieve cost efficiencies. There is also growing evidence of member country representatives actively engaging in developing and delivering event agendas and knowledge products, and leading the thematic groups, to advance reforms in their countries.