Worldwide—Fiscal Reform and Economic Governance

For nearly a decade, DAI worked with the U.S Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Office of Economic Growth to support public finance and broader economic governance reforms in developing, transition, and post-conflict countries, with a focus on how to tax fairly and effectively, forge credible national budgets, spend taxpayer dollars more prudently, and broaden the public-private dialogue on fiscal policy choices. Our projects—Fiscal Reform in Support of Trade Liberalization (2003–2006) and Fiscal Reform and Economic Governance (2006–2010)—have helped USAID officers embrace fiscal concepts, understand the linkages between public financial management and economic growth, and design programs that effectively exploit those linkages.

Sample Activities

• Identify best practices and develop accessible tools to support fiscal analysis.
• Promote peer learning and networks through seminars, workshops, training sessions, and other communications activities, including maintenance of an acclaimed fiscal website.
• Provide field support to help design and bridge USAID-supported fiscal reform activities.

Select Results

• Developed the seminal methodology for tax system benchmarking and launched the first global tax benchmarking database, still updated annually by USAID.
• Prepared a white paper for transforming intergovernmental fiscal arrangements in India.
• Helped Guatemalan policy makers set the agenda for improving tax and expenditure policy and administration.
• Designed a fiscal system for the new Government of Southern Sudan.
• Modeled the impact of trade liberalization on government revenues in Vietnam.
• Designed and set up a fiscal programming office in the Ministry of Finance of Angola.