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May 21st, 2001
Public Expenditure Analysis & Management Staff Training Course
May 22-24, 2001
MC4-800
The main objective of this three-day course is to bring together for Bank staff, the full range of issues associated with public expenditure—economic policy, analysis, management and institutions. Participants will be introduced to the concepts in each of these areas and provided with practical tools for use in both economic and sector work and lending programs. In this latter context, current development in the lending instruments to support public expenditure at the macro, sector and project levels will be explored.
Since a great deal of the cutting edge analytical and practical work in these areas is being done in the Bank, the program will draw heavily on Bank staff as presenters and discussants. Many of the presentations will be accompanied by mini-case studies and there will be a substantial allocation of time for discussion.
Sponsored by:
Public Expenditure Thematic Group, PREM Network
World Bank
Course Program
Day 1: Tuesday, May 22
9:00 – 9:15 a.m. Introduction to the Course
Vinaya Swaroop, Lead Economist, DECRG/PRMPS
I. General PE Issues and Macro framework
9:15 – 10:45 a.m.
Session 1: Managing Public Budget to Facilitate Economic Growth and reduce Poverty
. An overview session, it will highlight how the public sector can help in creating (a) the enabling environment to facilitate the private sector led growth process; and (b) helping those who are poor and need help from the government. A framework to assess the public budget will be discussed and it will be shown how economic analysis can be applied to the rationale for public spending, the choice of instruments (public provision vs. subsidy vs. regulation) and deciding among competing demand for public resources. The process to improve budgetary management as well as the link to the sub-national level of governments will be discussed. In discussing these themes, a reference to the various sessions in the seminar will be made.
Chair & Speaker: Vinaya Swaroop, DECRG/ PRMPS.
10:45 – 11:00 a.m. Break
11:00 – 12:30 p.m. Session 2: Public Expenditures, Budget Deficits & the Macroeconomic Framework.
This session will discuss the link between public expenditures and the macroeconomic framework, focusing on budget deficits, public/private borrowing and inflation. It will discuss how financial programming exercise defines the limits for private and public sector credit, and together with other forms of budget financing, establish the size of the budgetary envelope that is consistent with the overall macro goals, or methodologies in arriving at a resource envelope for public expenditures. How excessive public spending can effect debt sustainability will also be discussed.
Chair: Vinaya Swaroop.
Speaker: Sanjeev Gupta, Chief, Expenditure Policy Division, Fiscal Affairs Dept, IMF.
12:30 – 2:00 p.m. Luncheon Session
Cheryl Gray, Director, PRMPS on “Integrating Public Expenditure and Financial Management Work in the Bank.”
II. Issues in Sectoral Analysis
2:00 – 3:30 p.m. Session 3: Health Sector Expenditures.
This session applies the principles of public expenditure analysis to the health sector. It identifies the characteristic market failures of the sector, the relative degree to which the poor benefit from health expenditures and the systemic problems in the public delivery of health services. The use of data and other analytic techniques in the context of public expenditure reviews are also discussed.
Chair: Vinaya Swaroop
Speaker: Jeffery Hammer, Lead Economist, DECRG.
3:30 – 3:45 p.m. Break
3:45 – 5:00 p.m. Session 4: Issues in Education Spending
Public expenditures on education represent a high percentage of total expenditures. The allocation of such resources has not always produced the best results. This session will discuss the public rationale for education expenditures, the finance and provision mix, and recent evidence on education outcomes. It will also discuss innovative mechanisms for analyzing education expenditures.
Chair: Vinaya Swaroop
Speaker: Harry Patrinos, Senior Education Economist, HDNED.
Day 2: Wednesday, May 23
9:00 – 10:30 a.m. Session 5: Issues in Rural Development and Agriculture.
This session will cover the key rural development activities typically funded by public budgets. The discussion will cover efficiency and equity aspects, as well as practical considerations (cost effectiveness). Linkages with other expenditures that have an important bearing on rural development but are commonly included in other sectors (rural roads, rural education, rural water supply) will be highlighted. A case study of Indonesia will be presented.
Chair: Vinaya Swaroop
Speakers: Gershon Feder, Research Manager, DECRG; Jaime Quizon, DECRG.
10:30 – 10:45 a.m.. Break
10:45 – 12:00 p.m. Session 6: Targeting of Government Expenditures for Poverty Reduction.
This session will discuss the role of targeting in social policy, tools available to target public programs, pros and cons of them, and the outcomes that can be reasonably expected. Examples are drawn principally from transfer programs.
Chair: Vinaya Swaroop
Speaker: Margaret Grosh, Lead Economist, HDNSP
III. Issues in Public Expenditure Management and Accountability
12:00 – 2:00 p.m. Luncheon Speaker
“A Strategy for (PEM) Reform” Professor Allen Schick, Professor of Public Policy, University of Maryland.
2:00 – 3:30 p.m. Session 7: Linking Policy, Planning and Budgeting.
This session will examine approaches to linking planning policy and budgeting in the reform of public expenditure management, looking particularly at the instrument of medium term expenditure frameworks. A case study will be presented of Uganda's experience in development of a medium term expenditure framework over almost a decade, illustrating the contribution of this instrument towards sustaining a successful stabilization, managing significant resource shifts in favor of poverty reduction and developing greater accountability for budget policy and performance. The session will include discussion of the relevance of such approaches in developing country conditions, prior conditions for successful reform, lessons learnt so far on sequencing of MTEF development and its place within a broader PEM reform agenda.
Chair: Gary Reid, Senior Public Mgmt. Specialist, ECSPE.
Speaker: Allister Moon, Lead Economist, ECSPE
3:30 – 3:45 p.m. Break
3:45 – 5:00 p.m. Session 8: Public Budget Execution and Monitoring.
A great deal of attention has been given to budget formulation issues, ranging from resource allocation decisions, participation, and processes. Comparatively less attention is given to budget execution. And, even when budget execution is addressed, it tends to be viewed narrowly in terms of Treasury systems or cash management. This session will present an overview of budget execution issues, including why it is important, linkages to budget formulation, and to cash management issues, with country issues used to illustrate key points.
Chair: Gary Reid
Speakers:
1. General Issues: William Dorotinsky, Public Sector Specialist, PRMPS;
2. A Case Study on Zambia: Hinh Dinh, Lead Economist, AFTM1
Day 3: Thursday, May 24
IV. Cross-cutting issues in public expenditure
9:15 – 10:45 a.m. Session 9: Wages and Employment
In the first half of this session three definitional issues in civil service will be discussed: (a) Institutional/legal issues around who is a civil servant; (b) the institutional/budgetary definitional issue around who is being paid as a public employee; and (c) the practical definitional issue of what is meant by pay. In the second part of the session benchmarks to assess pay and benefits in the public sector will be discussed. The session will review some of the approaches used in practice to evaluate the compensation gap between the public and the private sector. It will outline practical alternatives based on the use of household survey data. A practical way of assessing the value of intangible benefits, such as job security or low effort will also be discussed.
Chair: Vinaya Swaroop
Speakers: Nick Manning, Senior Public Sector Specialist, PRMPS; Martin Rama, Lead Economist, DECRG.
10:45 – 11:00 a.m. Break
11:00 – 12:30 p.m. Session 10: Issues in Inter-governmental Fiscal Relations.
Public sector in most countries is organized into multiple layers of governments with varying roles for these centers of government responsibility. An analysis of public expenditure policies could not be carried out without a deeper understanding of the roles of these agents. This session will highlight issues and relevant frameworks to examine the implications of synergies and conflicts among different levels of government for economic management and public service provision.
Chair: Jennie Litvack, Senior Economist, PRMPS
Speaker: Anwar Shah, Lead Evaluation Officer, OED
12:30 – 2:00 p.m. Luncheon Session
Professor Philip Joyce, Associate Professor of Public Administration, George Washington University.
V. Public Expenditure and Bank Instruments
2:00 – 3:30 p.m. Session 11: The Changing Face of Public Expenditure Reviews.
It is increasingly recognized that PERs undertaken with substantive participation by counterparts in government have significantly greater impact in getting consensus on problem definition and action to address weaknesses. David Shand will discuss the costs and the benefits of a participatory PER using the experience of the Vietnam PER. PERs are also now seen as instruments to enhance the Bank's fiduciary assessment of a country's financial and public expenditure management capacity. Anand Rajaram will discuss ways in which collaboration between the PREM, FM and Procurement communities in the Bank could provide the basis for an integrated assessment of systems of PEM and financial accountability. Recent work in Turkey and Bosnia will provide illustrations of the ways in which such collaboration could be structured.
Chair: Vinaya Swaroop.
Speakers:
1. David Shand, Financial Management Advisor;
2. Anand Rajaram, Senior Economist, PRMPS.
3:30 – 3:45 Break
3:45 – 5:00 p.m. Session 12: Linking Public Expenditure Work with Bank instruments.
This session will discuss the application of public budget issues in the two most important instruments in the Bank’s work: “Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper” and “Poverty Reduction Support Credit.”
Chair: Chuck Humphreys, Sector Manager, AFTM4
Speakers:
1. Jeni Klugman, Lead Economist, PRMPO (Link with PRSPs);
2. Ritva Reinnka, Research Manager, DECRG (Link with PRSCs).