International best practice technical assistance performance for the South African local government financial management reform and capacity-building program from 2003

Abstract

Quantitative research of local government financial management reform in a developing country, focussed on the measurement of international technical assistance contributions, promised to be a useful practical addition to the literature and of practical assistance to reform assessment. There is an abundance of public sector financial management reform literature, but it is most often qualitative and does not provide an analysis of the real financial impact of technical assistance, especially in the international public sector financial management reform field. Gaining an understanding of the real financial condition and performance improvements of target organisations, as a fundamental success measure of success, is more important than qualitative assessments simply of process improvement. South African local government financial management reform provided a unique research opportunity. Extensive technical assistance over many years to its municipalities, including some with international expert advisors for long periods, provided a research sample of municipalities with and without experts for comparison. A World Bank-sponsored local government financial management technical assistance program (known as MFMTAP), commencing in early 2003 and concluding in May 2008, provided a research opportunity that was witness to financial management outcomes prior to, during and post the program. Research techniques developed during the research and outcomes would be useful for evaluating the MFMTAP post completion, and might support monitoring and evaluation of similar programs in other developing countries.