Strategic planning and informed based budgeting in Romania PAG Network Prague, March 23, 2017 Radu Iacob Counselor The General Secretariat of the Government The Department for Coordination of Policies and Priorities

Content 1. Context 2. Current efforts 3. Implementation timeline 4. Institutional Strategic Plan – structure and approach 5. ICT tool for ISP Monitoring 6. Institutional Arrangements 7. Challenges in implementation 8. Questions

Context 2002 – budgetary programs introduced in the national legislation & medium term expenditure framework (1+3 years) – still an annual cash budget 2006 – 1st methodology for strategic planning 2008 – complementary methodology for budget programming 2011 – Fiscal Budgetary Strategy (1+2 years)

Context 2007 – 1st round of institutional strategic plans (ISPs) – the management/policy component 2009 – economic and financial crisis/change in government – the budget component is dropped 2012 – DDO-DPL program with the World Bank – conditionality to gradually revise the SP system

Context 2013 – 2 ISPs revised (internally based on the 2006 methodology) 2014 – 6 ISPs revised (idem) 2014 – New Strategy for Public Administration (ex-ante conditionality) strengthen the planning, budgeting and policy monitoring processes in the Center of Government (CoG), Ministry of Public Finance (MoPF) and line ministries enhance the efficiency of public spending

Context 2013 - 2014 – Min. of Agriculture – ISP – World Bank TA – ICT Tool for M&E 2013 – Amendment to the Law of Public Finances – MoPF should elaborate a new methodology for budget programming and pilot it in 2 ministries – Education and Health 2014 – 2015 – World Bank IDF Grant – TA at the level of Prime Minister’s Chancellery – new methodology & 2 new ISPs – Education and Health

Current efforts "Extending the Strategic Planning system to the line ministries level” - SIPOCA 28 – TA with the support of the World Bank, in partnership with the Romanian Court of Accounts and the Romanian Academy – cofinanced by ESF – AC OP Continues the work done for strengthening planning and policy monitoring developed under the WB IDF Grant A key step towards introducing performance/informed- based budgeting in the Romanian public sector

Current efforts Outcomes: Facilitating a high-level dialogue on the importance of improved priority-setting and strategic planning Strengthening the ISP process (developed under the IDF) by further rolling it out to 13 ministries

Current efforts Improving monitoring and reporting processes with the use of an IT tool Creating a central dashboard that can inform the strategic prioritization based on performance on ISP priorities in line ministries Building planning and monitoring capacities in the CoG as well as among the institutional counterparts

Current efforts

Implementation timeline Result / deadline September 2016 June 2017 June 2018 May 2019 New methodology for strategic planning   13 ISPs elaborated – phase I ISP monitoring system 13 ISPs elaborated – phase II 13 ISPs elaborated – phase III Final report Final conference

Institutional Strategic Plan – structure and approach A document developed by each ministry Setting out the concrete actions to be undertaken and desired results to be achieved by the institution over the medium-term (1+3 years) to realize its vision and strategic objectives In the future, it will serve as the budget synthesis document for the yearly budget preparation The ISP architecture comprises a planning hierarchy, a program budget structure and a logic model of a results chain

Institutional Strategic Plan – structure and approach Vision, Mandate Impact Indicators Impacts Strategic Objectives Outcome Indicators Programs Outcomes Output Indicators Sub-Programs* Outputs Process Indicators Measures Inputs Activities/Projects

Institutional Strategic Plan – structure and approach VISION MISION SECTORAL STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

Institutional Strategic Plan – structure and approach Need to integrate AGWP into the strategic planning process AGWP could eventually include: Policy priorities Investment priorities Annual Legislative calendar Approved high-level strategies Policy & delivery reviews AGWP becomes Government’s Annual Operational Plan

Institutional Strategic Plan – structure and approach Budgeting the Strategic plan

Institutional Strategic Plan – structure and approach Budget on objectives and years – ex. MARD

Institutional Strategic Plan – structure and approach Monitoring: GSG

ICT tool for ISP Monitoring

ICT tool for ISP Monitoring GSG ISP dashboard

ICT tool for ISP Monitoring

ICT tool for ISP Monitoring http://213.177.9.198:8083/dashboard/ http://213.177.9.198:8083/ms http://213.177.9.198:8083/me

Institutional Arrangements The implementation of the project is managed by the Department for the Coordination of Public Policies (DCPP), part of the GSG, with support from MoPF and participating line ministries GSG in partnership with The Romanian Courts of Accounts and The Romanian Academy are the contractors of the EU funded project

Institutional Arrangements World Bank - provides technical assistance for the GSG End beneficiaries – 13 ministries: MARD, MIA, MRDPAEF, MEc, MBEnv, MEd, MR&D, MPF, MEnv., MWF, MLabour, MHealth, MTrans

Challenges in implementation The need to adapt the methodology to each sector’s specificities Tensions between the design of the programs and the institutional structure of ministries Resistance to change – the transition to program budgeting requires additional work in the short term Limited capacity in terms of human resources Political demand and support

Questions? Thank you! radu.iacob@gov.ro