SPB Newsfeed: First year of Strategic Planning and Budgeting activities successfully completed
The implementation of the EU-funded Strategic Planning and Budgeting (SPB) project follows the envisaged course. In the first year, the CEF successfully initiated the project and delivered seven training and networking activities, as well as a first face-to-face Steering Committee meeting. Cooperation with the IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department, the Regional School of Public Administration, the Joint Vienna Institute, and international experts in delivering (part of) the SPB activities has been successful.
The delivery of training and networking activities started in May 2013, with a seminar on Building Fiscal Institutions to Meet Post-Crisis Challenges for high-level representatives from institutions coordinating Strategic Planning and Budgeting (SPB) processes in beneficiary countries. Those institutions (mainly ministries of finance) have been the focus of activities in the first project implementation year – in the second, the focus shifts towards the institutions contributing to SPB processes. New e-learning courses on Budget Formulation and Execution, to be developed under the SPB project, are in development.
Delivered activities raised awareness among top-level officials of institutions coordinating medium-term macro-fiscal frameworks about the need and opportunities to improve those frameworks. Activities addressed the topics fiscal institutions; medium-term budgeting; programme budgeting, evaluation and spending review; capital budgeting; macroeconomic analysis; as well as training of trainers. Post-event surveys show that delivered activities helped strengthen public administration officials’ capacities in preparing those frameworks, promoted sharing of experience and good practices, and provided opportunities to strengthen networks with other officials.
With our partners, we look forward to delivering the second year of SPB activities to meet the needs of project beneficiaries in the Western Balkan countries and Turkey. Activities before the summerbreak will address the Integration of Structural Reforms into Fiscal Programming; Macroeconomic Forecasting; Medium-term Budgeting; and Program Budgeting, Evaluation and Spending Review. Efforts are underway looking into opportunities to sustain and deepen the impact of the SPB project, to be delivered through spring 2015.
