CEF Attended OECD SBO Performance and Results Network Meeting

The OECD Working Party of Senior Budget Officials (SBO) constitutes five regional and six associated thematic networks. We have been strongly involved in the SBO network for Central, Eastern and South-Eastern European Countries. This year, we attended the annual meeting of the SBO Performance and Results network, which aims at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of resource allocation and management in the public sector by assisting member countries to design and implement performance- and results-based budgeting and management reforms.

South East European countries have invested efforts in implementing important elements to strengthen the link between budgets and achieved results, for example, by introducing program classification and evaluation, and by carrying out spending reviews. We have been supporting such efforts through delivering coursework on Program Budgeting, Evaluation and Spending Reviews, which we recently intensified under our Strategic Planning and Budgeting project. We have been in particular extending the coursework towards line ministries, addressing also their role in the process.

Robert Bauchmüller, CEF Program Manager went to Paris to share the CEF’s experience in this regard, and to learn from the experience of OECD countries, joining presentations and discussions on their recent progress in implementing performance budgeting, which surfaced the many challenges such approach can entail and good practice in addressing some of them. The meeting emphasized the importance of involving line ministries when implementing (elements of) performance budgeting. Line ministries are better informed about the output and outcomes of their policies, but may need guidance in linking performance information to their budget submissions; ministries of finance typically play an important role in this regard. Strengthening their partnership is an essential precondition to strengthen the use of results of program evaluation and spending reviews in feeding line ministries’ budget submissions. Similarly, a strengthened partnership with the parliament is needed, assuring policymakers are best guided and informed in reviewing performance information integrated in the budget documents. Experience shared by OECD countries indicated that there is no standard answer on how to assure such partnership, but that the country specific governance structure and stakeholders’ perception of the process are essential aspects to look at.

The 10th meeting of the network welcomed more than a hundred participants from OECD countries and international experts. It hence provided an excellent opportunity to network, establishing new contacts that may be helpful in further strengthening the CEF’s coursework in that area, and in assuring all relevant stakeholders are included. More information about the 10th meeting of the OECD SBO Performance and Results network (including most of the presentations made) can be found here.