Public finance management - Our work and impact

Our action in public finance management is focused on two main strategic areas:

Support domestic resource mobilisation

Domestic resource mobilisation is essential for strengthening the financial autonomy of states and guaranteeing high-quality public services. It consists, among other things, in strengthening the capacity of a state to raise revenue, mainly from taxes and customs duties, in order to fund its development.

To support our partners in addressing these challenges, we use innovative approaches that incorporate technological, social and institutional dimensions.

• Technological dimensions: Harness digital technology by deploying information systems to improve transparency, reduce compliance costs, and limit corruption in the collection of taxes; use big data and artificial intelligence to target tax audits and detect risky behaviour while improving knowledge of the tax base; use geo-fiscality and digital land registries to broaden the property tax base.
• Social dimensions: Facilitate inclusion – through climate- and gender-sensitive taxation – to design fairer tax systems and foster greater tax compliance by factoring in the different impacts on women and men.
• Institutional dimensions: Reform local tax governance and decentralise the collection of certain taxes to authorities that have better knowledge of taxpayers.

Foster transparency, management and public accountability

In this second strategic area, we implement technical assistance projects to support public finance management reforms that improve the economic and financial governance of our partners.

Based on our observations, our partners now increasingly focus on the efficient allocation and management of public resources and on accountability mechanisms, which are essential for building trust between citizens and public institutions.

With financial markets becoming increasingly globalised, international cooperation is a fundamental lever to ensure the stability, transparency, and inclusivity of financial systems. International cooperation can effectively address transnational concerns such as the regulation and stability of financial systems and international financial flows, the promotion of sustainable finance, and the strengthening of financial inclusion.

Cooperation between institutions such as the G20, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) also allows for better coordination of national monetary policies. This can make it easier to anticipate global macroeconomic imbalances and, in particular, to prevent excessive currency volatility and financial crises.

These areas of action are strategic priorities for France, particularly within the framework of its policy on international cooperation. Through the Presidential Council for International Partnerships (CPPI), France is committed to strengthening the capacity of partner states to generate and sustainably manage their resources. This approach also contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in tax justice, good governance, financial autonomy, and development, among others.

Our work is supported by a large network of public-sector experts and private partners with recognised technical skills and professional practices. We also work closely with the Ministry of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty, particularly with the Directorate General of Public Finances, the General Inspectorate of Finances, the Directorate General of Customs and Indirect Taxes, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies, the Bank of France and also the Court of Auditors. Together, these form part of the pool of experts that we deploy to support our partner countries.

Our services have three main goals:

• Support domestic resource mobilisation and efficient public finance management: We support projects aimed at increasing and effectively mobilising domestic resources in developing economies. We do this by supporting a solid policy-making framework that combats tax evasion, broadens and consolidates the tax base, and promotes tax compliance. We also do this by modernising tax and customs administrations to strengthen institutions, improve the skills of tax and customs administrations, and promote new technologies and the use of data science. Additionally, we carry out reform projects aimed at performance-based budgeting and provide technical assistance on a wide range of issues. These include the modernisation of public management; improving the reliability and transparency of public accounts and of debt and cash management; public investment; the incorporation of environmental, social and gender dimensions into public finance modernisation; strengthening public accountability mechanisms; and strengthening national statistical systems.
  Finally, we support institutions that are responsible for monitoring government action to improve budgetary transparency and accountability.
• Support financial systems: We support several central banks in strengthening their regulatory role through innovative approaches such as risk-based supervision, the integration into regulation of climate risks and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risks, and the fight against illicit financial flows.
• Improve local governance: We help our partners improve local governance to promote public participation, bring institutions closer to citizens and modernise local administration. We also help them to tailor responses to local needs through functional and financial decentralisation, facilitation of multi-stakeholder partnerships, deployment of coordinated regional initiatives, large-scale digitalisation, implementation of participatory budgeting and citizen involvement, and strengthening of public policy management at local level.