October 8-12, 2023
The International Development Association (IDA) has provided the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) with a grant, through the Somalia National Bureau of Statistics (SNBS), to implement the Somali Integrated Statistics and Economic Capacity Building (SIECB) Project. The project aims at improving the programming and analytical capacity of the FGS macroeconomic and fiscal programming agencies to enable them to regularly assess, analyze and improve public policies, programme performance and results.
More specifically, the Project aims at (i) strengthening the national statistical system (ii) strengthening the capacity of monitoring and evaluation systems and (iii) build capacity in economic policy analysis and economic planning and budgeting. The Project is being funded by the World Bank (IDA) and other development partners.
For the past two years, the Project has supported a number of capacity-building workshops for the FGS Macroeconomic Working Group (MWG). The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning, Investment, and Economic Development, the Central Bank of Somalia, and the Somali National Statistics Bureau are represented in the MWG.
It was decided at a MWG workshop on capacity building held in Kismayo in March 2023 that the Project needed to fund consultations and activities to increase the capacity of the five (5) Federal Member States (FMS) in policy formulation and analysis, economic planning, and annual and medium-term budgeting.
Under the direction of the Director of Economic Policy and Planning Directorate, the FMS Finance officials’ capacity building was carried out to I conduct a Needs Assessment by reviewing the existing policy making, planning, and budget preparation capacities of the FMS planning and budgeting units, including the existing institutional arrangements. (ii) implementing training and capacity-building programs for FMS in budgeting, planning, and policy making; (iii) Respond to the most recent economic developments in Somalia through the post-HIPC plan, NDP-9 costing and reform agendas (PFM and Revenue reforms in the nation), and (iv) communicate with the FGS MWG to coordinate the capacity building and training initiatives at the federal and member state levels and create the necessary synergies between the two.
The second FMS capacity-building event took place from October 8 to October 12 at the BCQ Palace Hotel in Dusmareb, Galmudug State of Somalia.
The workshop’s primary goals are to (i) train and increase participant capacity with regard to policy, planning, and budgetary issues. (ii) provide a forum for participants to discuss and offer recommendations on aligning FMS and FGS policy making, planning, and budgeting processes (iii) equip participants with the knowledge and skills to effectively manage, undertake, and report on -PEFA related indicators (iv) address the significance of budget credibility and transparency as key components of effective fiscal management.
Twenty (20) participants from the Ministry of Finance’s FGS, PIU, and FMS from the Southwest, Hirshabelle, and the Galmudug State of Somalia attended the session. The Macro-Financial and Budget departments of the FMSs select the participants.
The workshop program comprised group presentations, resource person presentations, Q&A plenary sessions, breakout sessions, and group activities.
