My involvement with CEF learning initiatives dates back a few years ago, but a significant impact on my work made the Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop that I attended in February 2015. I learned, under the guidance of CEF facilitators and an international expert on social learning, the essential features of effective communication and how to give powerful presentations.

This experience was very important for me, as I regularly give presentations to my colleagues at the Ministry of Finance. I learned namely how to involve audience in a discussion and how to make key communication messages precise and give them sufficient visual importance. With this experience, I felt more confident in a presentation I delivered to my colleagues upon my return to the ministry. They are acquainted with techniques of effective communication, as I shared course materials with them on a joint disk of the Ministry of Finance.

The second learning initiative that I attended at the CEF was a workshop on Budget Submissions of Line Ministries where I shared the evolving role of the budget process in Moldovan line ministries. We experienced the importance of good budget submissions from line ministries and I very much liked the regional comparison of budget inputs on cases of Croatia and Slovenia, as it showed us that strengthened capacities of budget directors in those ministries improve the budget process; I mentioned this also to my colleagues at the Ministry of Finance. I not only liked the opportunity to present at the CEF, incorporating effective communication suggestions from the ToT workshop. From the reflections with our international experts and peers from the region, I also brought back lessons learned and shared them with my colleagues.

My involvement in the Budget Submissions workshop was funded by UNDP/SlovakAid, which supports public financial management capacity development in Moldova. This cooperation between the CEF and UNDP/SlovakAid perfectly complemented our domestic efforts, helping me to learn more about good practice and reform experiences elsewhere in the region. I think it would be very beneficial to organize such trainings in the future also in Moldova. Having both ministry of finance’s and line ministries’ participants attending the learning events, enables them to learn from each other and share experience in budget negotiation practice.

The CEF plays an important role as a knowledge hub in South East Europe and I think it could even extend its role in the region in future.

Viorica Neclea
Senior Consultant
Ministry of Finance
Moldova