Strengthening a Central Finance Agency in Times of Change. A Political Economy Study of Tonga's Ministry of Finance and National Planning

This report presents the findings of a study of Central Finance Agencies (CFAs) that was financed jointly by the Bank Netherlands Partnership Program (BNPP) and the World Bank since July 2008. The work involved the preparation of a framework paper by Bjoern Dressel and Jim Brumby, which employs political economy considerations; a set of case studies involving missions to ten low-income countries, six of which were in the Africa region; and a database on the role and structure of CFAs in 55 countries at various stages of development. In order to test the robustness and versatility of the framework, the missions employed a variety of team structures and approaches