Publications

The Fiscal Year (FY) 2021 was the first year in which all activities were carried out online due to global COVID-19 restrictions on travel and conferences.  While COVID-19 has affected the network’s operating environment and poses a risk to functionality, it also enabled PEMPAL to demonstrate its relevance to members. The rapid work by the network leadership to set up events that address the impact of COVID-19 on countries’ PFM systems and public finances were seen by many members as a good example of why participation in PEMPAL is relevant to countries. The upside of the online format is that it allows many more participants, including from other regions to join events at no extra cost. The online format also facilitated a much broader outreach in member countries, allowing a bigger participation of officials from relevant government units in the events, especially bilateral ones.  As a result, over a thousand participants joined various events throughout the year, including several hundred tuning in for the annual plenary meetings of all three COPs. This is the highest number of participants ever recorded.