In Doboj, on 8 and 9 June 2017, there was a meeting of the management structures of the project “Development of Capacities for Strategic Planning and Policy Development” (known as the SPPD II phase) implemented by the Djikic Consulting Services. Managerial structures consist of the representatives of the management bodies from the level of BiH, the Federation of BiH, the Republic of Srpska and the Brčko District of BiH appointed in the Implementation and the Supervisory Team of the Project. The project is financed by the Public Administration Reform Fund with the objective of improving the functions of strategic planning and public policy development in the administration bodies in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The project support for strengthening the capacities of the civil servants was designed as a combination of theoretic and practical work and it is implemented through modular programmes of professional education and direct expert support in work environment on preparation and implementation of concrete work tasks. In the second component the project ensures expert, normative and methodological support for establishment of a consistent legal framework of medium term and annual planning linked with budget planning, improvement of the monitoring functions, reporting and evaluation in accordance with specific needs and priorities of each administrative level in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The management structures were informed on the progress in implementation of the project activities and gave additional recommendations and suggestions in order to enlarge an additional value of the project. So, during the previous quarterly reporting period both the Council of Ministers of BiH and the Government of the Republic of Srpska were informed on the project activities and they gave a support to its implementation stressing the need of involvement of the managing civil servants in the training programmes. The project was additionally presented also at the regional conference “Dialogue and cooperation with the civil society to better results of the public administration reform”, organised by the project of technical assistance to the civil society organisations (TACSO) and the Transparency International of Bosnia and Herzegovina (TI BiH).
External circumstances marking this reporting period are enactment of the Law on Development Planning of the Federation of BiH and amendments to the Common rules for draft of the legal regulations in the institutions of BiH and both these events would definitely influence also the need for adjustment of the project activities to specific solutions of these acts in continuation. During this period activities of mentoring were intensified, especially in the field of medium term planning of the ministries of the Government of the Federation of BiH and development of the policies at the level of the institutions of BiH, and implementation of the first modules of trainings at the level of the Brčko District of BiH also started. The example of the Federal Institute for Development Programming was especially pointed out, which directly supported organisation and actively participated and directed mentoring meetings with the ministries of the Federation of BiH in the direction of formulating basic elements of the medium term plans of the federal ministries. It was also stressed that a close cooperation of the key partner institutions and the project team was necessary both in the selection of attendees of the trainings and in implementation of the mentor meetings, and a similar interest for active approach was demonstrated also in the Directorate for Economic Planning of BiH.
In addition to 7 implemented training modules at all the administration levels and implemented mentor meetings, a significant attention was dedicated in this quarter to coordination of the activities with the main beneficiary institutions, especially in the Brčko District of BiH, and to cooperation with other implementers of the project activities in the field of public policy development and planning, such as the USAID Project of strengthening of institutions of government and processes in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Twinning Project (Austria, Slovenia) Sector of security in BiH – agencies for law enforcement and the Programme of Strengthening of Public Institutions on BiH, by the implementer the GIZ. The result of these coordination activities was agreement on mutual participation of the project teams in implementation of the trainings in order to harmonise and equalise the main methodological messages to attendees.
The representatives of the management structures especially welcomed and deemed necessary the activities the project initiated regarding the analysis of the normative framework of the medium term planning and public policy development in the institutions of BiH, who are expected in the next steps to examine the possibilities of mutual approximation and harmonisation of the planning systems between the administration levels of the entities and the institutions of BiH.