I enjoyed meeting other colleagues from the region and liked in particular the session of the social learning expert Beverly Trayner on giving powerful presentations, which showed me how to put more attention to communicate short and clear message when giving presentations. I liked the emphasis on soft skills in making presentations, for example, assuring good communication with the audience.

This course was very inclusive as all participants were engaged in giving presentations. I liked learning from other countries of the region especially in the group work. My group prepared a presentation on budget planning.

I believe it was useful that officials from both ministries of finance and line ministries jointly learned how to better communicate the needs and challenges experienced during budget preparation, and how to better coordinate solutions for improving the medium-term budget framework, fiscal policies and rules for ceilings.

We analyze at our ministry how countries in the EU and our region prepare medium-term budgeting frameworks, and search for better solutions in both program and institutional approaches. Good practice from other countries can serve as a good example for the budget process in my country. I will try to take it into consideration when discussing with my colleagues.

When I returned to my ministry, I shared my course experience with my superior and other colleagues. Some of them shared also their training experiences in making powerful presentations, and how they incorporated what they have learned in their daily work.

I will try to implement the new skills that I gained from this course, especially when engaging with the line ministries in joint learning activities, and when sharing this knowledge with my colleagues. What I have learned may help me, for example, in my quarterly meetings with junior professionals from line ministries, at which I try to engage them in learning more about what I know about public finance.

I would like to especially share my appreciation for the CEF, which perfectly managed a great course delivery. The course has been delivered as part of the CEF’s Strategic Planning and Budgeting (SPB) project, for which I represent Macedonia in the Steering Committee. As member of this Committee, I follow closely the delivery of the project; Macedonian representatives have benefited a lot from this project. It was a pleasure to experience the project in action.

Tanja Tripunova
Deputy Head of Budget
Ministry of Finance
Macedonia