…. The training, technical assistance and policy dialogue provided by the academy will cover issues upstream and downstream of the public financial management cycle.
The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank (www.AfDB.org) on Wednesday endorsed the establishment of a virtual academy to build public finance management capacity in African countries.
Countries will receive technical assistance through structured, targeted, dedicated and local trainings as well as through policy dialogue.
The academy, housed within the African Development Bank Group’s African Development Institute, will deepen partnership with the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and African countries to improve public finance management practices in Africa .
Other implementing partners include key regional public financial management institutions, regional technical assistance centres, universities and national public administration training institutes.
The training, technical assistance and policy dialogue provided by the academy will cover issues upstream and downstream of the public finance management cycle, tailored to the specific needs of African countries.
The training modules will cover, among others: macroeconomics and fiscal policy planning, forecasting and modelling; prudential budgeting and expenditure management; domestic and external revenue mobilization; debt management and transparency; public-private partnerships in public finance management; strengthening supreme audit and accountability systems; and the fight against corruption and illicit financial flows. In addition, cross-cutting issues will also be taken into account, including institutional, legal and regulatory processes and human capacity governance.
The beneficiaries of the trainings cover the entire African civil service, including technical and political leaders who have the power to influence and change the public financial management systems of African countries.
Thus, the academy will welcome technical managers of public finance and senior civil servants from the ministries of finance, national planning, budget directorates, debt management directorates and financial departments, including tax administrations and customs.
In addition, the academy will target all officials involved in the expenditure chain (heads of national treasuries, administrative and financial departments of ministries responsible for expenditure and financial control), officials of central banks and sectoral ministries such as the ‘environment.
Also targeted are relevant agencies, parliamentarians, academics, private sector leaders and civil society organizations as well as think tanks.
The academy will also provide the necessary technical assistance to the competent institutions in charge of public finance management. It will seek out and establish partnerships with national public administration training institutes, in order to effectively deliver tailor-made capacity building programs for civil servants.
Professor Kevin Chika Urama, Acting Chief Economist and Vice President for Economic Governance and Knowledge Management at the African Development Bank, said: “The establishment of the Public Financial Management Academy will go a long way to filling long-standing capacity gaps in the public sector. financial management practices in African countries.
It will enable the Bank to leverage the resources (skills, competencies and financing) of sister multilateral development banks, international and African public financial management institutions to provide cutting-edge training, technical assistance and policy advice, integrated in the local realities of African countries. . I am very grateful to all the partners who have worked with us to design this transformative academy for Africa.
The policy dialogue component of the program will engage high-level decision makers and policy makers tasked with designing and promoting the expected change in African public financial management systems.
The technical assistance component will target relevant public institutions or their units, civil society organizations and think tanks involved in public financial management activities in Africa, including the media.
When fully operational, the academy courses will be offered to interested parties as certified postgraduate programs at preferential rates.
The Bank will establish a Policy Lab Unit comprised of certified global experts in public finance management who will be the faculty members responsible for delivering the courses. Members of the Policy Lab Unit, who will be selected on an as-needed basis, will come from the Bank Group, multilateral institutions, bilateral and regional institutions, universities and think tanks from Africa and individual experts on key topics of interest.
Each institutional member of the academy will provide specialized interventions according to its mandate and comparative advantage.
