Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Acronyms and Abbreviations -- Executive Summary -- Introduction -- Recent Reform Achievements -- Rationale for PEMFAR -- Objectives, Scope and Structure -- 1. Macroeconomic Context -- Structure of Niger's Economy and of Public Finance -- Economic Performance 2000-2003 -- Macroeconomic Outlook and Financing Requirements 2004-2007 -- Solvency and Fiscal Sustainability Analysis -- 2. Public Expenditure Review -- Objectives of the Public Expenditure Review -- Scope of Analysis and Data Constraints -- Analysis of Public Expenditure Structure -- Spending Targets for Priority Sectors -- Analysis of Public Expenditure by Functional Classification -- Actual Expenditures Compared to PRSP Spending Targets -- International Comparisons of Functional Distribution of Public Expenditure -- Factors Determining the Structure of Public Expenditure -- Economic Composition of Public Expenditures -- Impact of Budget Execution on Budget Outcomes -- Geographical Distribution of Public Expenditures and their Poverty Impact -- Sector Expenditure Reviews -- Education -- Health -- Road Transport -- Rural Development -- 3. Assessment of Public Finance Management Systems -- Budget Preparation -- Budget Execution -- The Budget Execution Process -- Externally Financed Development Expenditures -- Processing Delegated Budget Credits (credits délégués) -- Public Accounting and Treasury Management -- Government Accounts -- Reporting (Treasury Accounts and Budget Review Law) -- Treasury System -- Cash Management -- Internal and External Controls -- Ex-Ante Controls -- Internal Audit -- External Audit -- Political Control (National Assembly) -- Non Financial Assets, Monitoring of Parastatals and Debt Management -- Non-Financial Assets (Comptabilité Matière) -- Monitoring of Parastatals -- Debt Management.

Institutional and Organizational Reforms and Human Resources Management -- Institutional and Organizational Reforms -- Human Resource Management -- Appendixes -- Appendix A: Macroeconomic and Government Finance Tables -- Appendix A.1: Financing of Government Overall Fiscal Deficits -- Appendix A.2: Sources of Net Official Development Assistance, 1997-2001 -- Appendix A.3: Selected Economic and Financial Indicators, 2004-2007 -- Appendix B: Public Expenditure Data -- Appendix B.1: Total Public Expenditures -- Appendix B.2: Domestically-financed Public Expenditures -- Appendix C: Methodology of Public Expenditure Reclassification Exercise -- Appendix C.1: Objectives and Main Tasks -- Appendix C.2: List of Reclassifications and Explanations -- Appendix C.3: Synthesized Table of Reclassifications -- References -- LIST OF TABLES -- 1: Priority Action Plan -- 1-1: Nominal and Real GDP and Growth Rates, 1997-2003 -- 1-2: Niger and WAEMU Convergence Criteria, 1997-2003 -- 1-3: Composition of Government Revenue, 1997-2003 -- 1-4: Composition of Government Expenditures, 1997-2003 accrual terms -- 1-5: Composition of Government Expenditures, 1997-2003 -- 1-6: Overall Fiscal Balance, 1997-2003 -- 1-7: Projected HIPC Assistance to Niger after Completion Point -- 1-8: Change in Domestic Arrears (net), 1999-2003 -- 1-9: Financial Operations of the Central Government, 2004-2007 Projections of revenues and expenditures -- 1-10: Financial Operations of the Central Government, 2004-2007 Projections of overall balance and financing -- 1-11: Public Sector Solvency and Sustainability in Niger -- 2-1: Quantitative Targets for Priority Sector Spending -- 2-2: Functional Distribution of Public Spending (total expenditures) -- 2-3: Functional Distribution of Public Spending (Recurrent Expenditure) -- 2-4: Medium Term Projections of Priority Sector Expenditures, 2004-2007.

2-5: Regional Comparison of Spending on Priority Sectors -- 2-6: Importance of Donor Financing for Public Expenditures -- 2-7: Economic Structure of Total Expenditures -- 2-8: Payroll and Wage Bill 2000-2003 -- 2-9: Ratio of Recurrent to Capital Expenditures -- 2-10: Ratio of Budget Allocation to Execution by Expenditure Category -- 2-11: Execution Rates by Budget Execution Stage -- 2-12: Primary Education Indicators -- 2-13: Education Sector-Recurrent Expenditures by Subsector -- 2-14: Cost of Contract Teachers -- 2-15: Unit Costs by Subsector -- 2-16: Economic Classification of Education Expenditures -- 2-17: Health Indicators -- 2-18: Economic Classification of Health Expenditures -- 2-19: Health Sector-Recurrent Expenditures by Level -- 2-20: Ratios of Health Workers to Population by Region (2000) -- 2-21: Public Expenditures for Transport and Civil Works -- 2-22: Budget Allocations for Road Maintenance and Actual Expenditures -- 2-23: Yields of Cereal Production in Niger-Comparison with other Countries in the Sub-Region -- 2-24: Public Expenditures in the Rural Sector -- 3-1: Niger's Budget Execution Process -- LIST OF CHARTS -- 1-1: Real Output Growth -- 1-2: Evolution of Net ODA to Niger -- 1-3: Government Revenue -- 2-1: Evolution of Public Expenditure by Functional Classification -- 2-2: Evolution of Recurrent Expenditure by Functional Classification -- 2-3: Comparison Total Expenditures-PRSP Spending Targets -- 2-4: Comparison Recurrent Expenditures-PRSP Spending Targets -- 2-5: Sectoral Distribution of Capital Expenditures by Source of Financing -- 2-6: Use of HIPC Resources, 2001-2003 -- 2-7: Economic Structure of Total Expenditure -- 2-8: Execution Rates by Sectors -- 2-9: Quarterly Fluctuations in Spending on Goods and Services -- 2-10: Per Capita Levels of Regionally Administered Expenditures by Region.

2-11: Per Capita Distribution of Spending in the Special Program of the President -- LIST OF BOXES -- 1: WAEMU Convergence Criteria -- 2: Revenue-Enhancing Measures Introduced since 2001 -- 3: Rationale for and Impact of Niger's Cash Management System -- 4: Inter-sectoral Expenditure Structure-Main Recommendations -- 5: Education-Main Recommendations -- 6: Health Sector-Main Recommendations -- 7: Road Transport-Main Recommendations -- 8: Rural Development Sector-Main Recommendations -- 9: Budget Preparation-Main Recommendations -- 10: Exceptional Procedures -- 11: Budget Execution-Main Recommendations -- 12: Accounting and Treasury Management-Main Recommendations -- 13: Internal and External Controls-Main Recommendations -- 14: Non-financial Assets, Monitoring of Parastatals and Debt Management-Main Recommendations -- 15: Institutional and Organizational Reforms and Human Resources Management-Main Recommendations.