About this learning event

This online course will build on the outcomes and lessons learned in strengthening the fiscal literacy of line ministries. It will serve as platform for analyzing the novelties of ERP 2021–2023 Guidance Note. To avoid duplication of processes and procedures, the online course will primarily focus on promoting alignment of practices and tools for costing structural reforms from ERPs with those used for medium-term budgeting. With the aim of enabling full integration of the preparation of ERPs into national processes, we will identify the main preconditions for effective incorporation of structural reforms' costs into fiscal constraints of medium-term budgets. The online course will be aligned with specific ERP contexts to cover topics such as integration of structural reforms into national fiscal frameworks, medium-term budgeting, strategic policy planning, etc. 

What will you learn?

The online course will primarily focus on promoting the alignment of practices and tools for costing structural reforms from ERPs with those used for medium-term budgeting, while putting particular attention to given versus new policy measures.

Through this online course, you will:

• acknowledge the hierarchy of different strategic planning and budgeting documents (including the ERP), and role of program classification and performance information,
• get a better understanding of your country’s fiscal framework and how it compares to other countries’ frameworks,
• discuss advantages, challenges and limitations of the ERP costing exercise and medium-term budgeting respectively,
• identify how the co-integration of the ERP costing exercise with medium-term budgeting, and opportunities to further enhance it,
• assess the main preconditions for effective incorporation of structural reforms' costs into fiscal constraints of medium-term budgets,
• review how new funding initiatives (NFIs) are prioritized and then integrated in ERPs and national budgets, and what is done with unfinished NFIs,
• treasure the importance of good strategic planning and well-defined policy measures,
• look into available budgetary and costing tools, approaches and guidance documents, and capture opportunities to further develop them.

We will design the online course highly participatory, putting particular attention at encouraging and enabling that the already given knowledge and insights of participating officials in those aspects are captured and shared. The forthcoming regional FISR initiative on Fiscal Programming of Structural Reforms (May 2020) provides an opportunity to sustain and further deepen what is learned and discussed.

Who should attend?

Target audience: officials from finance and policy departments of line ministries, and budget analysts in ministries of finance, who are involved in the ERP design and coordination.

Faculty

Irena Drmaž

Janez Šušteršič

Useful reading materials

• Mrak, M., Bauchmüller, R., McClure, P. (Eds.) (2013). Fiscal Impact Assessment of Structural Reforms: Case Studies on South East Europe. [texts by Blerta, Z., et al.]. CEF: Ljubljana.
• Hadley, S., Kraan, D.J. & Welham, B. (2018). Recent developments in the work of the Budget Office. OECD Journal on Budgeting, Volume 18 Issue 2.
• Stanković, T. (2017). Harmonization of Budgets and Economic Reform Programmes. CEF Discussion Paper.
• Kraan, D.J. (2015). Strengthening the Role of Line Ministries in the Budget Process. CEF Discussion Paper.
• Hege, E. & Brimont, L. (2018). Integrating SDGs into national budgetary processes. IDDRI Study 05/18 (July).

Partners

This learning initiative was supported by: