Building Pyramids in the Valleys
Program Description
As part of our ongoing commitment to build capacity and develop institutions in the area of public financial management, IPAC International Programs has partnered with the Governance and Institutional Development Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat to design and deliver a unique programme, BUILDING PYRAMIDS IN THE VALLEYS. The programme is aimed at enhancing the capabilities of developing countries in the areas of strategic communication, planning, implementation and oversight of budgets. In so doing, we foster the direct transfer of knowledge and technical skills from high capacity institutions within the Commonwealth.
Nominating governments appoint delegates, who are senior officials from budget divisions/bureaus in ministries of finance. The delegates travel for two weeks to a Canadian city: the inaugural programme was held in Toronto in March 2007, the second programme took place in Edmonton in May 2008, and the third is scheduled for this September in Halifax. Here, delegates participate in a one-of-a-kind programme that combines expert seminars and job-shadowing activities through which they are paired with Canadian mentors, selected from provincial and municipal governments.
Job-shadowing activities give our international peers the opportunity to receive hands-on, practical experience in a broad range of activities that pertain to expenditure management. Job-shadowing can include such activities as attendance or participation in deputy and ministerial briefings, presentations, interministerial meetings, stakeholder consultations, among other day-to-day activities that may occur during the period. In the course of these experiences, peers share materials – legislation, policies, manuals and guidelines, for instance – that further enrich each other’s learning.
Goals and Objectives
The programme aims to create a core team of finance and budget officials who will in turn, participate in our capacity building and knowledge sharing drive. To advance these overall goals, we seek in particular to:
· Share public expenditure management innovation, principles and practices with a concentration on Performance Budgeting
· Enhance public expenditure leadership and financial management skills and competencies
· Develop sustainable partnerships and relationships among Commonwealth public expenditure management leaders
· Document public expenditure management innovation and learning processes
· Create PEM Thematic Fellowship in the Caribbean and establish a network with Thematic Fellows in other regions
Results and Achievements
So far, Toronto and Edmonton have hosted delegates from an array of African and Caribbean countries: Sierra Leone, Namibia, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Cameroon, Malawi, South Africa, St. Lucia, Swaziland, Seychelles, Montserrat, Antigua and Barbuda, and Barbados. In response to our evaluation survey, delegates reported that they found the job-shadowing activities and presentations highly informative. Especially praised as useful was the hands-on experience that they received through the job-shadowing component. Asked to reflect upon one activity that they would undertake as a result of this programme, they noted a host of applications, including “daily expenditure tracking of the budget,” the introduction of “Results Based Planning in our budget cycle,” and “peer review.” Overall, our international counterparts commended the programme for having exceeded their expectations.
Job-shadowing has multiple benefits for all involved. One of the most rewarding achievements of this programme is that it fosters two-way learning. Thanks to the sense of equal footing created by peer-to-peer learning, peers have reported about entering into lively dialogue and debate with their Canadian counterparts about their own models and practices. The result is that both mentors and peers are challenged to step back from their own way of doing things, explain and define their work in new ways. Pushed to build upon and borrow from each other’s knowledge and skills, they make their best practices available for a host of new adaptations.
After the conclusion of each programme, many mentors and peers continue to correspond by email, laying the foundation for follow-up activities in the future. We are currently working to create a Thematic Network that would foster continued dialogue and communication among peers, as well as a post-programme publication, jointly authored by each cohort.
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