IBRD Trust Funds - World Bank

Published purpose

This project aims to enhance economic management in the Caribbean region by improving revenue generation (tax and customs); implementing sustainable medium-term fiscal and budgetary policies; and reorienting budget expenditure towards more effective and efficient programs. In addition, improved cash and debt management would help to reduce both financing costs and risks. The project is designed to achieve these objectives through the provision of policy advice, technical assistance, and selected information technology (IT) investments by the World Bank with support from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Regional cooperation is expected to result in better opportunities to develop flexible and sustainable IT systems that support modern responsive tax and customs departments and public financial management (budget preparation and treasury execution) that ensures stewardship over revenues and control over expenditures. Following the devastating hurricanes that hit the Caribbean in 2017, the Strengthening Economic Management in the Caribbean (SEMCAR) initiative pivoted to address climate resilience as related to PFM. In June 2018, Jamaica requested Canadian assistance in strengthening the internal capacity of the Ministry of Finance and Accountable Budget Officers across government to better respond to climate change-driven natural disasters. Canada agreed to use the SEMCAR Externally-Funded Output to conduct a climate-resilient budgeting exercise for the identification and prioritization of critical PFM practices and procedures which often pose challenges for ministries of finance when responding to natural disasters and the identifications of weakness across the PFM cycle. The resulting tool—the post-disaster financial management review and engagement framework—is an analytical instrument that seeks to help countries pinpoint critical PFM policies, practices, and procedures that can be strengthened to improve a government’s capability to respond more efficiently and effectively to natural disasters and other catastrophic events. The post-disaster public financial management review tool has also been applied in Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, and St. Lucia, and key challenges identified will be addressed in part through the support of the Canada-Caribbean Resilience Facility.