Bilan et défis des reformes harmonisées de programmation budgétaire en Afrique : cas du CDMT, Quid de l’expérience du Sénégal ?[Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) in Africa : A Senegal Case Study]

Several reforms marked the fiscal management in Africa in the past decades. The Public Financial Management Systems in many African countries are greatly affected by problems regarding the budget preparation process, its execution and its control. The Medium Term expenditure Framework (MTEF) has emerged in this context of research of performance improvement. In the countries of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), the implementation of the 2009 directives pertaining to the harmonized framework for the public finances is a major focus of political integration through the application of the convergence criteria via the generalization of best practices in budget management. The rapid spread of the MTEFs as a tool for multi-year budgeting raises many questions about their impacts. This article revisits the recent and uneven development of the MTEFs in Africa and initiates an initial assessment of MTEF as applied in Senegal, in the light of its generic goals and by using the non-parametric statistics. Like the few existing evaluations on MTEF in Africa, this study analyzes the effectiveness of the MTEF in the process of budget allocation to priority sectors of development. The results show that the MTEF has not allowed a tangible improvement in fiscal discipline and has not lead to a redeployment towards these sectors. However, an acceptable budget programming is noted in the case of Senegal with realistic the multi-year projections. Ultimately, the study shows that the MTEF approach has significant potential remains unexploited as reforms remain incomplete in Africa.