Public Expenditure Reform under Adjustment Lending: Lessons from World Bank Experience

This paper argues that the World Bank should follow a systemic approach to developing guidance on public expenditure reform. Suggested approaches are to: determine an appropriate role for government and its various agents and specify their partnership with the civil society and the private sector; clarify the goals of reform and specify performance monitoring and evaluation indicators; target unproductive and inequitable expenditures from elimination; emphasize poverty alleviation; and promote equity and adopt general guidelines on policy environment goals for external assistance.