Selected aspects of program budgeting and performance management

The PEMPAL Budget Community of Practice (BCOP) meeting on “Selected aspects of program budgeting and performance management”, which took place in Tirana, Albania, on February 25-28, 2013, brought together 81 people, including 62 practitioners from 21 PEMPAL countries, as well as experts from the World Bank, OECD SIGMA, Euroasian Economic Commission, Eurasian Development Bank, Austrian Federal Chancellery, Mapsec (Public Sector Management), and International Monetary Fund.
 
Date: February 25-28, 2013
Location: Tirana, Albania
 
Three main sessions/blocs addressed during the Plenary meeting were:
 
1.       Design of programs and performance measures;
2.       Budget documentation;
3.       Performance monitoring and evaluation.

The aim of the above-mentioned sessions were to visualize how to follow natural steps in introduction of program budgeting, usage of program and performance information in budget formulation and subsequently in budget documentation, and finally monitoring and evaluation of programs and performance measures.

An overview of practices and issues in EU and OECD countries was presented, with a summary of the essential elements of the program budgeting and performance measures (best practices). In addition, main finding from the World Bank’s PFM Study and OECD Budget Survey were presented. Additionally, in-depth concrete examples of specific approaches to performance assessment were provided within programs in public administration and social policy.

Furthermore, roles and tasks have been allocated to discussion groups within B CoP during the plenary meeting. They focused on (i) topics and activities for B CoP to explore, (ii) format of the events, (iii) B CoP messages for external stakeholders, and (iv)social reporting.

Prior to the Plenary meeting, Network Formation training was provided for the BCOP Executive Committee members by a professional coach on networks in order to strengthen BCOP Community Building.