SHIPDET Special Topic Courses on Results-based Planning, Budgeting and Impact Evaluation held in Shanghai
From April 8-12, about 30 participants from Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar, Philippines, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Lao PDR and the Asian Development Bank Resident Mission in Nepal and China gathered at the Shanghai National Accounting Institute, Shanghai, China for this year’s first SHIPDET Special Topic Courses on Results-based Planning, Budgeting and Impact Evaluation.
The training course was co-sponsored by the Ministry of Finance of China and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), and co-organized by the Asia-Pacific Finance and Development Center (AFDC) and the Asia-Pacific Community of Practice on Managing for Development Results (APCoP).
The training targeted at a wide range of participants not only from Ministry of Finance and Planning, but also from many other line ministries in the above-mentioned Southeast Asian countries, including ministries of education, culture, health, work & human settlement, agriculture & forests, public works & highways, rural development, international cooperation, etc.
Dr. Peng Runzhong, Director of AFDC and Ms. Farzana Ahmed, Lead Results Management Specialist of ADB attended the opening ceremony and delivered opening remarks on behalf of the co-organizers of the training program on April 8.
Following the opening ceremony, Farzana started the first session of the training in which she gave the participants a broad picture of what results-based public sector management (PSM) is about. According to her, the key features of results-based approaches to public sector management include five core results attributes, i.e. Planning, Budgeting, Implementation, Monitoring, and Evaluation.
Then Prof. Allen Schick, Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at the University of Maryland, USA as well as the core instructor of this training course, went on to address the first two components of this results-based PSM framework in four lectures, including important linkages between planning and budgeting, challenges of budget execution and monitoring, the logic, benefits and limitations of Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and budgeting in a decentralized environment.
The second part of the training focused on impact evaluation which is lectured by Ms. Nina Blondal from April 11-12. Nina has worked extensively on impact evaluation of development programs for the past decade and her experience in this field spans a variety of sectors, and includes design, implementation and management of large-scale impact evaluations in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America. During the training, she not only expounded the methods and approaches to impact evaluation, but also shared practical cases of impact evaluation with the participants.
In addition to the experts’ lectures, participants were also encouraged to share their country experiences in planning, budgeting and evaluation under the moderation of the training experts. Participants were also divided into several breakout groups for group discussion and brainstorming of the assignments given by the instructors.
Amid the tight training schedule, AFDC also organized a field trip to Shanghai’s Bund area to avail participants of opportunities to know more about both the history and the latest developments of the city.
This is the first training of its kind in 2013. According to AFDC’s work plan, AFDC will continue to cooperate with the ADB to organize two more training workshops on this topic in other parts of China in the coming months of this year.
