Matthew Cummins, UNICEF HQ
The financial landscape for VAS programming is changing with decreasing external financing from donors, and therefore a Public Finance for Children (PF4C) perspective is proposed for institutionalizing VAS financing within government systems. Public Financial Management (PFM) is the way governments manage public resources (revenue and expenditure) and how such resources impact the economy or society. And within that, PF4C describes efforts to increase the transparency, adequacy, value for money and equity of public investments in children, including VAS programs. Several PFM related bottlenecks for VAS are detailed, based on adequacy, value for money, and equity. A tool is introduced which supports and guides countries on how to remove the PFM related bottlenecks.