Background

The Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF) and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) agreed to organize a joint event during the Annual Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank Group (WBG) in Washington DC. The “High-Level Policy Dialogue: Strengthening the Role of Good Governance through Increased Fiscal Transparency and Revenue Administration Reform in South East Europe” will be held on October 10th and will also address the CEF and IMF plans to continue supporting public financial management (PFM) and revenue administration reforms through training and technical assistance in South East Europe (SEE).

A strengthened understanding of the need to improve the quality of PFM and revenue administration systems has led many countries across the globe, including those in SEE, to make concerted efforts to improve fiscal transparency as one of the key inputs to introduce good governance structures. Several global initiatives have been developed to understand the impact of increased fiscal transparency on budgetary outcomes, to promote improvement in fiscal transparency practices, as well as the frameworks to measure fiscal transparency. An important element of these recent fiscal transparency initiatives has been the need to strengthen the relationship between different stakeholders involved in PFM, including governments, parliaments, supreme audit institutions, the judiciary, civil society organizations, and the media.

The IMF's fiscal transparency work focuses on the need for governments to be open to the public as to their fiscal policy-making process, as a critical element of effective fiscal management. This helps to foster better-informed public debate, as well as greater government accountability and credibility. In this respect, the IMF has recently updated its Code of Good Practices in Fiscal Transparency focused around four pillars: i) fiscal reporting; ii) fiscal forecasting and budgeting; and iii) fiscal risk analysis and management; iv) resource revenue management. The IMF’s Fiscal Transparency Assessment tool focuses on these three pillars.

There are a number of other frameworks that have also been developed to measure the quality of PFM and revenue systems, and countries can potentially use these as inputs to governments’ reform processes. These include: the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) framework that measures individual country PFM systems performance; and the Tax Administration Diagnostic Assessment Tool (TADAT) that has recently been developed to assess country tax administration systems.

Policy dialogue objectives

The key objectives of the high-level policy dialogue event are:

Sharing recent international initiatives to strengthen the role of good governance through increased fiscal transparency with senior officials from the region; and the role of different diagnostic assessments in framing governments’ reform plans in PFM and revenue administration systems;
Discussing PFM and revenue administration reform priorities in the region;
Updating senior officials on possible further support to PFM and revenue administration reform efforts in the region through technical assistance activities of the IMF and the CEF regional practically-oriented and experience-based learning events; and
Obtaining senior officials views and support on the main provisions of the CEF and IMF action plan for SEE.

Policy dialogue format

The two-hour high-level event will be organized as a formal event bringing together high level officials from ministries of finance and central banks in South East Europe to share views and experience on how to strengthen good governance in the region.

The event will be moderated by the CEF and will include substantial input from senior IMF officials.

The event will be organized back-to-back with the 14th CEF Supervisory Board meeting.

About the organizers

The event will be moderated by the CEF and will include substantial input from senior IMF officials.

>> CEF and our role in SEE
CEF supports capacity development in public financial management and central banking topics for individuals and institutions. We do this by designing high-quality, practical and learning-centered specialization programs and training events; by promoting networks of professionals; and by stimulating regional cooperation. We partner with multilateral and bilateral agencies, knowledge institutions, and peer organizations, and we tap the expertise of a broad range of individual experts.

>> Synergies with the IMF
To address CEF member countries’ priorities and needs, the CEF works closely with the International Monetary Fund, through the Fiscal Affairs Department (IMF FAD), whose regional technical assistance advisors for South East Europe use the CEF as their hub for missions. The CEF hosts two IMF FAD advisors and their support staff, whose efforts are funded by the Japanese government. Our organizations’ efforts in the region are complementary and mutually reinforcing. IMF technical assistance missions help pinpoint needs for learning and knowledge sharing among practitioners. The CEF designs workshops that address these needs, bringing together peer institutions and experts from the region and beyond. Many of the courses are co-delivered by IMF advisors, who contribute content that is strongly informed by their missions. These unique synergies have contributed to a steady rise in our member countries’ demand for help with capacity development. This excellent cooperation with the IMF and its advisors promotes sustainable capacity development in our member countries.

Application procedure

Application Closing Date: Oct 3,2014