The Debt Management and Financial Analysis System (DMFAS) Programme is a leading provider of technical cooperation in the area of capacity-development in debt management.
Mandated by the UN General Assembly the Programme has been successful in helping over 75 governments improve their capacity to manage debt for over 40 years.
The development objective of the DMFAS Programme is to strengthen Government’s capacity to manage their debt effectively and sustainably, in support of poverty reduction development, transparency and good governance.
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Problems addressed
Sustainable Development Goal 17.4 recognises the importance of assisting developing countries to attain long-term debt sustainability and reducing the risk of debt distress.
Similarly, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda stresses the value of prudent borrowing as a tool for financing investment needed for development, and of the critical role of sound debt management in conjunction with debt relief and debt restructuring.
The Bridgetown Covenant reiterates that UNCTAD should continue its "technical assistance on debt issues, including the Debt Management and Financial Analysis System programme".
Effective debt management is an intrinsically important component of Public Financial Management, overall good governance and poverty reduction.
However, the international community, including the G20, has serious concerns about the overall outlook for external debt sustainability in developing countries and the related problems with debt data transparency.
The DMFAS Programme helps governments to address these problems.
The DMFAS community
The Programme has so far worked directly at the country level with more than 115 institutions (Ministries of Finance and Central Banks) in 75 countries.
The DMFAS system is currently used in 85 institutions in 60 countries.
What we do
The Programme offers countries a set of proven solutions for improving their capacity to handle the day-to-day management of public liabilities and produce reliable debt data for policy-making purposes.
This includes:
These are implemented with countries through tailored technical cooperation projects.
Climbing the debt management ladder
DMFAS specialized products and services focus on debt data recording, monitoring and reporting (downstream debt management).
DMFAS complements the work of other organisations such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund and regional bodies whose primary focus is on strategy and debt sustainability analysis (upstream debt management).
With the Programme's assistance, governments are able to produce and publish reliable, comprehensive and timely information on their debt so it is accessible to all at the international, national and local levels.
The production of reliable debt information helps countries to develop sound debt management strategies. It also enables them to meet their reporting obligations.
“DMFAS revolutionized the world of debt management users as it allows, not only to record but also, with the development of the system in line of international best practices, to analyse public debt data."
Head of the back-office, Burundi
" With the implantation of DMFAS 6, we noticed upfront (compared to DMFAS 5.3) a gain of approximately 25% in recording time for the entire back-office. "
Head of the Debt Office, Togo
"[The Programme] continues to make an important contribution to the achievements of SDGs."
External evaluator, 2019