The paper, Financial Management Information Systems : 25 Years of World Bank Experience on What Works and What Doesn't, was prepared by the public sector and governance group of the World Bank poverty reduction and economic management network. Since 1984, the World Bank has financed 87 Financial Management Information System (FMIS) projects in 51 countries.

This study presents the World Bank's experience with these investment operations, including substantial ICT components as well as the factors contributing to the success and failure of projects and individual components, in order to share the achievements and challenges observed, and provide guidance for improving the performance of future projects.

The findings of this study are based on a comprehensive database of 55 closed and 32 active Treasury and FMIS projects implemented between 1984 and 2010 (pipeline projects were also analyzed in some sections). The data presented here was gathered from individual project ICRs, Project Appraisal Documents (PADs), the IEG reports, and complemented with interviews with task team leaders and relevant public sector and informatics specialists.