Strengthening Budget Practices in Africa

Strengthening budget practices is at the heart of CABRI's work. It is an essentiel element to better service delivery by the state and better development prospects. Across Africa, citizens are asking their governments to provide them with better services and often, this has to be done with limited resources. Developing a coherent framework for budget allocation and management is a continuous process, which takes account of both country circumstances and regional and international trends. In light of this, the seminar enabled senior budget officials to highlight budget reform priorities, gain a deeper understanding of how to undertake performance budgeting, find ways to integrate aid and PFM management and carefully appraise and manage capital projects across the continent.

The seminar aimed at:

• Revisiting budget reform priorities for the continent, taking into account different country contexts
• Exploring the benefits of performance budgeting
• Examining the fiscal and budget policy choices countries are currently cnsidering in response to the global economic slowdown
• Reproting back on CABRI's work on putting aid on budget in Rwanda and develop a CABRI response to the Accra Agenda for Action statement on Using Country Systems; and
• Further understanding the opportunities and complexities for improving the planning, budgeting and management of capital projects in Africa

The programme is available for download here.

Opening address and welcome remarks
Oumar Sylla, Permanent Secretay, Ministry of Economy and Finance, Senegal

Seminar papers and presentations are available for download here.

The CABRI/AfDB 2008 Report on Budget Practices and Procedures in Africa.

Are we asking the right questions?
Embedding a medium term perspective in budgeting

In asking the right questions around the areas of the budget that take several years to change, we are able to better understand and address the country-specific complexities of moving from an annual to a multi-year budget process. The seminar provided the intellectual space to investigate what lies beyond the introduction of an MTEF framework, what building blocks are required and what obstacles should be overcome for such a mechanism to ensure that decisions on the raising of public resources and how they are allocated are taken in view of the medium term impact and of these decisions.

The Seminar investigated:

• Legacy frameworks and legal framework practice
• Mobilising dometsic revenues
• Solving medium-term fiscal policy puzzles
• Capital budgeting
• Interrogating baselines and setting expenditure ceilings
• Putting aid on budget

The programme is available for download here.

Opening address and welcome remarks
H.E. Mr. Kwadwo Baah-Wiredu, Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Ghana

Seminar papers and presentations are available for download here.

The post seminar publication is available for download here.

Bridging the gap: from policies to budget

Ensuring appropriate linkage of budgets to policies is a key challenge for all countries, especially those seeking to reform and strengthen their public expenditure management systems. The seminar addressed the key weaknesses that cause disparities between planning and budgeting systems in many African countries.

Managing complexity: from fragmentation to coordination

Budgeting involves the combination of multiple information sources, different perspectives and diverse interest groups, which all influence complex decisions. As government service delivery and financing modalities grow more complex, the demands on budget management tools and processes have increased under less favorable human resources environment and greater policy and financing uncertainty. The seminar provided a platform to investigate the institutional and technical mechanisms to manage the inherently complex and fragmented nature of budgeting.

The seminar covered:

• Achieving coordination through the classification system
• Managing aid flows
• Decentralising public functions to public entities
• Policy budgeting and oversight: the role of the legislature
• Economic reforms in Angola

The programme is available for download here.

Opening address and welcome remarks
Dr. José Sulemane, Ministry of Finance, Mozambique
Andrew Donaldson, National Treasury, South Africa

Seminar papers and presentations are avaliable for download here.

The post seminar publication is available for download here.

2004 Budget Reform

CABRI was launched in 2004 as an informal network of senior budget officials of ministries of finance and/or planning in Africa. This initiative first focus of discussions tackles the difficulties that African countries face in establishing realistic budgets, building budget credibility, implementing a medium term budget framework and improving the quality of expenditure. The seminar provided an opportunity for participants to discuss and share experiences on reform modalities that had been successful and those that have not been successful.