This public expenditure review is prepared by the World Bank, in close collaboration with the government of Burundi. This document highlights the significant progress made by Burundi in the recent past. The most notable recent achievement has been the improvement of indicators in the sectors of health, education and gender. In spite of such progress however, it is observed that economic growth remains weak and gross domestic product (GDP) rates are below expectations. Burundi is therefore vulnerable to different sources of shocks, especially external as a result of increasing prices of imported food and fuel, the price volatility of tea and coffee exports, climate change, and declining aid transfers. The main objective of the public expenditure review is to assist the government in its efforts to escape fragility by focusing on two important and complementary themes: 1) creating adequate fiscal space to reduce the impact of future shocks
and 2) using the available fiscal space to improve public expenditure management and promote government effectiveness.