Jay-Hyung Kim

The Public Investment Management (PIM) Reference Guide aims to convey country experiences and good international practices as a basis for decisions on how to address a country-specific PIM reform agenda. The country references are drawn largely from previous diagnostics and technical assistance reports of the World Bank.The application of country diagnostics and assessments has revealed a need to address the following issues when undertaking a country reform in PIM:• Clarification of the definition and scope of public investment and public investment management• Establishment of a sound legal, regulatory, and institutional setting for PIM, making sure it is linked to the budget process• Allocation of roles and responsibilities for key players in PIM across government• Strengthening of guidance on project preappraisal, appraisal, and selection-prioritization procedures and deepening of project appraisal methodologies• Integration of strategic planning, project appraisal-selection, and capital budgeting• Management of multiyear capital budget allocations and commitments• Efforts to address effective implementation, procurement, and monitoring of projects• Strengthening of asset management and ex post evaluation• Integration of PIM and public-private partnership (PPP) in a unified framework• Rationalization and prioritization of the existing PIM project portfolio• Development of a PIM database and information technology in the form of a PIM information system.The PIM Reference Guide does not seek to provide definitive answers or standard guidance for the common PIM issues facing countries. Nor does it seek to provide a detailed template for replication across countries: this would be impossible given the diversity of country situations. Instead, each chapter begins with an overview of the specific reform issue, lists approaches and experiences from different countries, and summarizes the references and good practices to be considered in designing country-specific reform actions.

Public resources - if invested well in public infrastructure and services - can catalyze private and community efforts and unleash an inclusive growth and development process. But public investment attracts political interest, usually of the kind that undermines efficiency. Too often public projects are poorly designed, under-funded, long-delayed, or badly implemented, with little benefit to the population. This is a critical challenge for many countries, both rich and poor. Paradoxically, some countries are even unable to spend their limited investment budgets while others lack “shovel ready” projects for a fiscal stimulus. The quality of institutions is fundamental. This book identifies eight key institutional features that countries need to adopt to ensure that public investments support growth and development. Very broadly, the eight stages correspond to a disciplined system for guiding, appraising, reviewing and selecting projects that are most likely to stimulate inclusive development, and following through to ensure that they are implemented, adjusted, operated and evaluated to deliver the public services that citizens and the private sector expect. A review of over 30 countries suggests that these eight features are present in all countries that manage resources efficiently but most countries are missing key features. Not surprisingly, those weaknesses contribute to poor investment and development outcomes. Strengthening institutions for public investment management is critical to developmental success.This book provides a clear, non-technical discussion on approaches to improving project appraisal, dealing with uncertainty (an issue that is likely to grow in importance with the effects of climate change), integrating procurement skills into project design and implementation, and of managing the decision on public private partnerships. By providing a simple but comprehensive framework and global experience, the book provides policy makers the guidance to adopt good functional principles in the design of institutions to strengthen public investment management.