When developing a learning program to best suit institutional needs, the process starts by capturing these needs. It is a complex and ongoing process, which is well incorporated in our institutional capacity development efforts.

There were several factors why we had to rethink our capturing plan. We felt that it would be beneficial to expand the central banking topic area and give it more attention. Therefore we decided to modernize and broaden the learning program. To this end, we had to lay out a plan to capture needs and draft a complete and comprehensive program for the future.

Before initiating the capturing of needs, we took a step back and reflected on the goals of this exercise. When developing the latest central banking learning program, we had several factors in mind. First, we wanted to design a program that would be relevant for the banks in South East Europe, based on their institutional capacities and economic environment. Second, we wished to identify unaddressed topics most sought for, and combine them with good practices to be shared. We have also established a Program Development Committee to ensure a quality review of our program plans. The committee members have been consulted in individual phases of capturing the learning needs and later on for reconfirmation of the whole program.

To have a complete overview of the learning needs of SEE central banks, high-quality inputs are of critical importance. We approached this in two ways. First, we gathered feedback from previous points of interaction on a regular basis, especially at the learning events. Based on that and to get a better insight, we approached our member central banks through a survey for their feedback on the needs of their employees, challenges their institutions were facing, ongoing activities that were addressing some of these challenges, and any observed good practices within or beyond the region. Their feedback served as an indispensable source of information: we established the most commonly exposed and burning topics that we then discussed in detail with our coordinators.

Second, we relied on desk research, trying to comprehend the economic situation, regulatory and institutional frameworks, and observations of other institutions involved in the review of the countries and/or providing guidance to them. Ultimately, we had sufficient input for the development of the future learning program.

Capturing needs is a complex process: it represents a critical point for the next steps in developing a program and therefore requires considerate attention. None of the processes is self-standing and while there is always reciprocal interaction, they are also proceeding individually and are never complete. Over time the information provided must be constantly reconfirmed and reflected upon.