Multi-Stakeholder PFM Training and Data Analysis Workshop

May 16-18, 2012 – Chisinau, Moldova

In response to the request for support from the Government of the Republic of Moldova to build capacity on budget analysis in the context of public financial management (PFM), the World Bank Institute is organizing a multi-stakeholder workshop on PFM and data analysis. This activity would build on the experience of Moldova as the first country in the world that used BOOST to release detailed and disaggregated data on public expenditures (2005-2010) through its open government portal (http://data.gov.md) in support of the country’s open budget agenda.

The objective of the workshop would be to build the capacity of stakeholders to better understand and engage on budget processes and embrace Moldova’s open budget agenda. The workshop will include training on BOOST and basic forms of public expenditure analysis as well as key PFM principles, and best practices and lessons learned with uses of the data and citizen feedback loops.

Beyond the training on BOOST and public expenditure analysis, a key goal of this workshop would be to understand the feedback chains that exist between the stakeholders offering/demanding budget data. What issues are the strategic players working on? What cases would be helpful for them to develop and what best practices should they be aware of?  What high value uses of budget data can be identified and promoted among the multiple stakeholders? These are all questions that would be developed throughout the workshop. The workshop would end with each participant proposing an action program for use of BOOST tools within Moldova’s PFM systems. This would open the door for a future event to provide support to the stakeholders on the development of their proposals for new uses of budget data, which could include more sector specific technical training.

 Action programs

One of the features for the workshop is that training activities will be highly interactive, Moldova-focused, and aimed at specific operational initiatives. With this in mind, each participant should come to the workshop with an idea for an action program that they intend to advocate and hopefully implement after the workshop.   The training sessions will be tailored to help design such programs, and there will be group working sessions where resource persons will be available to help develop each of the participants’ projects, leading to a presentation of final proposals at the end of the week.

Each participant should develop an idea for how the role of their own agency could be more effective in the overall PFM system, through more effective use of budget data, better analysis or better engagement in the system.  For central agencies or for spending ministries,  for example, this might take the form of new tools for expenditure planning which will strengthen the process of budget formulation, including through the PER process.  For the Parliamentary Budget Office, it might be types of analysis which would help members of the legislature quickly see aspects of budget performance, such as relative efficiency of service delivery in particular sector.  For civil society, it might be forms of visualizing budget performance and service delivery, which could help citizens provide more focused and effective feedback.  In the early part of the workshop we will be discussing these flows of data, analysis and potential opportunities for feedback: we will aim to develop a preliminary map of such flows in Moldova, and each participant will locate his or her proposed action program within the map.

Each participant will be invited to give a short description of their action program idea, towards the end of the first day of the workshop.  As a first start, this idea should include:

• Objective – what improvement in the budget system do you want to see?
• System and stakeholders – who needs to make what changes in current practice to achieve your objective?
• Analysis – what types of analysis may be needed, now or over time?
• Data – what data will be needed, how will it be accessed?

The ideas will be developed further the following day, through group working sessions. In some cases in may make sense to group action programs together.  It can also be an advantage to have other stakeholders’ comments on early proposals, helping to develop programs which from the outset are designed to work well in a multi-stakeholder environment of a modern budgetary system.

The training sessions in the workshop will also provide opportunity for developing the proposals. Day one will focus on data and analysis, while day 2 will be focused on PFM systems, which will help on the ‘systems and stakeholders ‘ questions, as well as best practices around citizen feedbacks loops and participatory budgeting.

On the final day each participant (or group) will present their final proposal, followed by discussion and feedback.  Working on the programs is in part a learning exercise, enabling participants to think practically about a range of potential developments for better budget management and service delivery. But the final day will also be an opportunity to look for proposals with real promise, to explore what else might be needed to make them practical realities, and plan any specific follow up which might help in implementation.

 AGENDA FOR THE TRAINING PROGRAM

SEE the LIST of  BOOST Speakers