A Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and an Integrated Financial Management
Information System (IFMIS) are two of the standard reforms promoted and supported by the World
Bank and other aid agencies in almost every country in Sub-Saharan Africa. This paper provides a
balance sheet of the relative success, or otherwise, of these reforms over the last decade. The aims
and objectives of the MTEF and the IFMIS are outlined, indicating the initial hopes for these reforms
and the increasingly strident warnings that this promise was not being delivered. A case study is
provided which considers the introduction of MTEF and IFMIS reforms in Rwanda. This
demonstrates the limited success of these reforms even in a country committed to fundamental
change and provided with significant resources by the donor community. The paper then argues
that it was the economic problems across Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in the late 1970s and early
1980s, resulting from external events, which led to a worsening of the quality of financial
management and governance. This contrasts with the dominant view that it is poor governance that
is holding back economic development across the continent. This leads to considerations of
effective alternative approaches; the need for real country led reforms which build on the particular
existing public sector financial management system in each country; and puts a priority on basic
internal financial controls and reforms which have been clearly proved to be successful in similar
environments. An incremental approach, which utilises and enhances local capacity, is considered
to be far more likely to succeed than big bang approaches like MTEF and IFMIS.
