Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) depends on the effectiveness of governments and their management of the public purse. There are important lessons to learn from the Covid-19 crisis for governments and the resilience of their approach to public financial management (PFM), says ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) in a new report Rethinking public financial management . Launched to coincide with ACCA’s annual Virtual Public Sector Conference (1 – 2 December 2021), the report explains that a government’s ability to do anything depends on the strength of its PFM system - how it prepares budgets, obtains financing, spends money, and keeps its accounts. And to meet ongoing challenges such as Covid-19 and meeting the UN SDGs, it’s essential that governments have the right, skilled people in place to do this very necessary work. Alex Metcalfe, ACCA’s head of public sector and co-author of the report...