Country Reform Cases
ARMENIA - REFORMING PROJECT PREPARATION AND APPRAISAL
Armenia strengthened project appraisal and central scrutiny to improve investment quality and help identify the highest impact projects. Ongoing reforms are tightening the link from project preparation to budgeting.
Armenia’s 2018 Public Investment Management Assessment (PIMA) found weak project appraisal and selection: there was no standardized appraisal methodology, central coordination was limited, and appraisal was uneven across funding sources. By contrast, the 2026 PIMA Update and Climate PIMA records an overall improvement in institutional design and effectiveness across the PIM lifecycle.
Since the 2018 PIMA, Armenia has introduced a range of public investment reforms. Changes include the establishment of a stronger legal footing through the Public Investment Management Decree; the introduction of new arrangements for project appraisal, assurance, and prioritization; a revised PPP framework, public procurement reforms and a strengthened Budget System Law.
A Government Decision enacted in 2023 and further amended in 2025, introduced a common framework for preparing and appraising medium and large projects, including pre-feasibility or feasibility work and technical, economic, financial, and risk analysis. Central oversight of the PIM process was reassigned to the Ministry of Finance and supported by a project database, central review, and prioritization arrangements.
These reforms addressed many of the weaknesses identified in the 2018 PIMA. These changes are designed to help Armenia identify the highest impact and most transformative investment projects and screen out weak projects prior to funding. Full impact of the reforms will can be supported by planned removal of exemptions, consistently applying central review, and restricting budget consideration to projects that have successfully passed the process.
CAMBODIA – CLOSING THE INFRASTRUCTURE EFFICIENCY GAP
Following from its 2019 PIMA Cambodia implemented a range of reforms to public investment management. Its investment efficiency score rose from 54 percent in 2019 to 61 percent in 2022, indicating better translation of public resources into critical infrastructure.
Cambodia has made significant progress in strengthening how it plans, selects and manages public investment, according to the IMF’s Internal Evaluation of the PIMA. The authorities credited IMF support, including assistance from a long-term advisor, with helping advance these reforms. Among the key reforms implemented are
Integrating published medium-term fiscal and budget frameworks into the budget cycle.
Introducing multi-year capital spending ceilings for line ministries.
Adding total project costs and annual allocations to the public investment plan.
Enhancing the procurement law.
Developing a national maintenance strategy.
The PIMA process has also provided a useful basis for coordinating IMF and development partner support, with partners contributing complementary expertise. In tandem with these reforms Cambodia’s public investment efficiency score – a measure of the extent and quality of infrastructure outputs delivered for a given level of public investment inputs - has risen as well. From a base of 54 percent in 2019, the efficiency score has increased to 61 percent in 2022. This means that Cambodia has become more efficient in translating scarce public resources into social and economic infrastructure.
MONGOLIA – ONGOING REFORMS TO IMPROVE INVESTMENT EFFICIENCY
Guided by PIMA assessments, Mongolia strengthened project appraisal, investment budgeting and oversight. These reforms helped narrow its investment efficiency gap with top performers by 13 percentage points between assessments.
Mongolia benefited from a PIMA in 2016, followed by a PIMA Update in 2023. The assessments have helped guide reforms in infrastructure governance across the lifecycle. Key changes have included:
Project appraisal and selection: Mongolia introduced regulations for evaluating, prioritizing, and selecting investment projects.
Information systems: a new Public Investment Management Information System (PIMIS) was developed.
Investment budgeting: The updated assessment found strengthened prioritization and funding of ongoing projects and incorporation of build-and-transfer projects into the budget.
Private sector participation: Mongolia enacted a new PPP law, revised procurement legislation, and advanced reforms to state-owned enterprises.
Importantly, the effectiveness of key public investment management institutions has also improved, for example relating to PPPs, project appraisal and the availability of funding for projects in implementation. Together, these changes are helping Mongolia select higher-impact infrastructure projects, strengthen oversight of public investment and better manage the fiscal risks associated with infrastructure delivery. A key finding of the 2023 update was an improvement in “investment efficiency” – the rate at which Mongolia transforms public investment inputs into infrastructure outputs. The updated assessment found that the country had narrowed the gap with highest performers by 13 percentage points from the 2016 assessment.
SOUTH AFRICA – COMPREHENSIVE BUDGET PRESENTATION IN A DECENTRALIZED SYSTEM
South Africa’s budget documentation provides a consolidated medium-term picture of infrastructure spending across national, provincial, and local government, public entities, and state-owned companies. This broad presentation improves visibility over a system in which a large share of infrastructure is delivered outside central government departments. This is particularly important given the network effects and complementarities of infrastructure assets.
South Africa’s infrastructure investment is highly decentralized. Provinces and municipalities execute most budget-funded investment, while state-owned corporations undertake much of the country’s large network investment. State-owned corporations account for around 40 percent of public infrastructure investment, shaping the capacity and reliability of electricity, freight rail, ports and other national networks, even where the investments are financed from company revenues or borrowing rather than through annual budget appropriations.
This institutional landscape makes a comprehensive presentation of investment information particularly important. As set out in the PIMA Handbook, consolidated reporting helps governments understand public corporations’ investment plans alongside government-financed projects, assess complementarities and coordinate infrastructure provision. It also highlights the value of integrating public-private partnership information into budget documentation.
South Africa has strengthened presentation of public investment spending in two important ways.
First, Budget Annexure D was redesigned in 2023 to combine reporting on publicly provided infrastructure with information previously presented separately on public-private partnerships. This created a broader view of investment plans, financing and major projects across the public sector. Annexure D now includes information for municipal, provincial and national government along with that for state-owned corporations, PPPs and public entities. Along with historic investment, the document also projects the three-year outlook for each category.
Second, the 2024 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement introduced a forward-looking infrastructure chapter, giving greater prominence to the investment pipeline and the government’s reform priorities. The most recent iteration of the statement signaled the government’s intention to implement key recommendations from South Africa’s 2026 PIMA and Climate PIMA, embedding further improvement within the budget process.
Comprehensive medium-term information gives government a stronger basis for coordination, affordability analysis, and scrutiny across a decentralized public sector.
UGANDA – IMPROVING PROJECT PREPARATION, APPRAISAL, AND GATEKEEPING
Uganda’s PIM reforms seek to close the gap between appraisal rules and practice. Stronger project preparation, gatekeeping and climate screening aim to improve project quality and support greener, more resilient infrastructure.
Uganda’s PIMA – undertaken in 2022 - highlighted improvements in its framework for economic and social appraisal of infrastructure projects while pointing to a gap between how approaches are designed “on paper” and how they play out “in practice”. Subsequent reforms, culminating in the 2024 National Public Investment Management Policy, have sought to address these challenges.
Uganda’s key reforms have included:
Establishing a dedicated central PIM function in the Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development to strengthen project preparation and appraisal.
Introducing a structured project-development process, with projects progressing through defined appraisal stages before budget entry.
Strengthening gatekeeping by the Development Committee, including updating the Development Committee Guidelines in 2025 to strengthen project appraisal, selection, affordability and management of ongoing projects.
Adopting the 2024 National PIM Policy, establishing common rules and responsibilities across the investment lifecycle.
Integrating climate and disaster risk into PIM, with climate screening incorporated into project appraisal and subsequently strengthened in project-selection criteria.
Developing a project implementation manual that standardizes project implementation, monitoring and evaluation, to promote efficient management, accountability, timely delivery and quality compliance of projects.
These reforms can help ensure the highest quality projects are funded and support the delivery of greener investment choices and infrastructure that is more resilient to climate change and natural disasters.
UKRAINE – OVERHAULING INFRASTRUCTURE GOVERNANCE IN A PERIOD OF WAR
Ukraine is replacing fragmented public investment channels with a common framework that links strategic priorities, project appraisal, portfolio formation, and medium-term budgeting.
Ukraine’s PIMA published in 2019 and subsequent World Bank Public Investment Management Diagnostic identified weaknesses across Ukraine’s public investment management system, including fragmented institutional arrangements, weak strategic prioritization, uneven application of project appraisal and selection procedures, and inadequate integration of investment decisions with medium-term budgeting. These weaknesses were compounded by limited project-management capacity and fragmented monitoring and information systems, constraining effective management of the public investment portfolio
Responding to these weaknesses, Ukraine has implemented sweeping reforms. Beginning with the 2023 Public Investment Management Roadmap and its 2024 Action Plan, the authorities have set, and followed, an ambitious plan to improve all aspects of infrastructure governance. Key achievements to date include:
Development of new methodologies for public investment management, covering project preparation, appraisal, review implementation and monitoring
Formation of the Single Project Pipeline, combining a multiplicity of funding channels into one.
Establishment of the Strategic Investment Council.
Development of the Medium-Term Plan of Priority Public Investments, published alongside the Budget Declaration.
Rolling out a range of training initiatives to build capacity.
Development of the “DREAM” platform for public investment management.
Together, these reforms are designed to assist Ukraine in optimizing capital spending in a time of war and fiscal constraints while simultaneously readying the country to deliver maximum impact of reconstruction investment when the war ends.
UNITED KINGDOM – INTEGRATING SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC INVESTMENT PLANNING OVER THE MEDIUM-TERM
The 2022 PIMA found the UK to be a standard-setter in many aspects of public investment management and identified some scope to build on this foundation. Its 2025 National Infrastructure Strategy implemented a number of key reforms relating to investment planning, budgeting and maintenance funding.
The UK’s 2022 PIMA found robust institutions across the public investment cycle, both in terms of their design on paper and their effectiveness in practice. It nevertheless identified scope to enhance performance in a number of areas including integrating economic and social infrastructure planning, providing medium-term capital guidance, and strengthening maintenance incentives. In 2025, the government published UK Infrastructure: a 10 Year Strategy. The strategy implements a number of key recommendations of the PIMA, as well as wider reform measures.
A broader, integrated infrastructure strategy. For the first time, national infrastructure planning systematically includes social investment such as schools, hospitals, prisons and housing, alongside economic infrastructure like transport, energy and water.
Longer and more predictable capital funding. Five-year ministerial capital envelopes, updated every two years, replace the previous reliance on typically three-year Spending Review allocations.
Greater priority for maintenance and renewal. The strategy provides sector-level maintenance allocations, gives particular attention to social infrastructure estates, and commits to unified government asset-management and maintenance plans
Stronger project readiness and approval discipline. Investment approval arrangements are tightened to reduce the risk that projects receive funding or proceed before they are sufficiently mature and implementation-ready.
More integrated central governance. The National Infrastructure and Service Transformation Authority brings long-term strategic planning closer to project assurance and delivery, supporting a more coherent link between strategy, spending, and implementation.
These changes can support the UK in building on existing strengths to unlock greater efficiency from investment.
UZBEKISTAN – STRENGTHENING PUBLIC INVESTMENT MANAGEMENT ACCROSS THE INVESTMENT CYCLE
Uzbekistan has strengthened its institutions for planning, appraising and managing public investment since its 2020 PIMA. Reforms have introduced stronger fiscal constraints, improved project appraisal and selection, and strengthened oversight of public-private partnerships.
Public investment is central to Uzbekistan’s Vision 2030, including planned investment in energy, transport, communications, water and social infrastructure. The 2025 PIMA Update and Climate PIMA found that the design of a number of institutions had improved in several areas since 2020, particularly in the planning and implementation phases, while a continued focus was required to bring effectiveness up to the same levels.
The reforms have strengthened several parts of the public investment cycle:
Stronger fiscal constraints. Fiscal rules and improvements to capital budget planning provide a stronger basis for keeping investment affordable and sustainable.
Better appraisal and selection. New procedures have strengthened the appraisal and selection of capital projects.
Improved monitoring. New procedures have also strengthened the monitoring of projects during implementation.
Closer scrutiny of PPP risks. Central oversight of public-private partnerships has been strengthened, including requirements to assess and consider fiscal risks before approval.
The updated PIMA found that these reforms strengthened Uzbekistan’s public investment management institutions, which now compare well with regional peers and emerging market economies in project appraisal, selection and most aspects of implementation. Important gaps remain, including the absence of unified project pipeline, and further work is needed on capital budgeting, maintenance and the PPP framework. The next stage is to apply the strengthened rules consistently and integrate them within a more unified investment process.
