SHIPDET Special Topic Courses on Results-based Planning, Budgeting, Monitoring and Evaluation held in Guangzhou
The second “SHIPDET Special Topic Courses on Results-Based Planning, Budgeting, Monitoring and Evaluation” of the year was opened in Guangzhou on June 15th, 2013. 27 government officials and professionals from 10 developing countries in South Asia and Southeast Asia participated in this training. The program 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 Centre (AFDC), the Asia-Pacific Community of Practice on Managing for Development Results (APCoP) and Department of Finance of Guangdong Province, PRC.
At 9am sharp, June 15th, 2013, Dr. Min Zhao, Deputy Director of AFDC, Mr. Yaji Zheng, Director of Guangdong Provincial Finance Bureau, PRC and Ms. Farzana Ahmed, Lead Results Management Specialist of ADB jointly opened the training program at Guangzhou Baiyun International Convention Centre and each of them delivered opening remarks on behalf of the co-organizers.
Following the opening ceremony, Ms. Farzana Ahmed started the first session and presented the framework that describes the basic features of results-based public sector management to all the participants. Ms. Yuying Cao, Deputy Director of Guangdong Provincial Finance Bureau, PRC, then introduced the practices and lessons on performance management with a particular focus on the results-based evaluation of IFIs financed projects in Guangdong province later on. Since Guangdong is one of the leading provinces in implementing performance management in China, the participants were much impressed with the practical lessons on performance management in Guangdong, and raised lots of questions during that session.
This training was mainly lectured by two experts, Mr. Ian Hawkesworth from Budgeting and Public Expenditures Division, OECD and Ms. Nina Blondal, an impact evaluation expert from Denmark. Both of them have extensive experiences in the relevant issues such as budget management and impact evaluation. Throughout the training, there were very good interaction and heated discussion between the lecturers and participants.
In addition to the lectures given by the two experts, all the participants were divided into 4 breakout groups for brainstorming and also encouraged to share the relevant experience in planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation with each other in each country presentation.
Dr. Peng Runzhong, Director of AFDC and Ms. Farzana Ahmed hosted the closing ceremony and presented the certificates to the participants at the end of the training. They hoped that all the participants had a wonderful and fruitful stay in Guangzhou. According to the working schedule between AFDC and ADB, the third batch of the training will be held in August in Urumqi, PRC.
