How To: Your Guide to Results Based Planning & Budgeting

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Comment by Rwakurumbira Munyaradzi on January 27, 2012 at 1:14am

BACKGROUND
The African Community of Practice on Managing for Development Results’ Knowledge Management Team is pleased to launch its first set of guidelines designed to assist members with implementing results based strategic planning within their own governments. This document is intended to be a primer and uses Zimbabwe as specific implementation example.

OVERVIEW
Planning is the instrument used by a government to define a country’s road map or in other words, its direction or destination. In planning, a country must respond to three basic questions: “Where are we?” “Where do we want to go?” “How can we get there?” To answer the first question, the country’s social and economic situation is analyzed based on reliable statistical information. The answer to the second question pertains to the incumbent government’s objectives, whose progress must be supported by the legislative branch and civil society.
Answering the third question requires analysis of the options available to achieve the objectives and choosing those that seem most appropriate and efficient. Results-based planning therefore includes strategic planning. Strategic planning must be included because the answers to the question “Where do we want to go?” must be derived from a clear vision of the future, at least for the medium term, and must propose a combination of objectives that have been prioritized by rigorous analysis of the political, social and economic environment.
1) Focus on Goal Quality Not Quantity
Plans drafted with innumerable goals cannot be considered strategic because government resources must be focused on the most important goals. This problem can be solved by formulating a long-term vision that allows the government to initiate a national debate to reach consensus on the challenges that should be met during the next 20 or so years. Although a long-term vision will not establish detailed strategies or objectives, it should be based on a well documented assessment of the country’s socioeconomic tendencies and include goals to be achieved in each of the strategic areas.
2) Consult, Consult, Consult
Additionally, decisions related to where to go must consider the opinions of the majority of stakeholders in the country to ensure the government’s plan will be seen as acceptable and credible. Results cannot be achieved if the majority of those tasked to achieve an objective do not explicitly agree with the plan. The higher the degree of participation by the relevant actors in society, the greater the possibility the plan will be carried out and its achievements sustained over time. Legislative branch participation must therefore ensure pluralist discussion of the plan’s policies, and participation by civil society and private sector organizations will lend the plan greater social legitimacy. Participation of the general public, civil society organisations and other stakeholders and other players in development planning is fundamental not only when the state is defining a road map, but also in other stages of the management cycle, such as budget formulation, goods and services management, monitoring and evaluation of programs and projects and, of course, accountability. It is therefore very important that state institutions place all information relevant to the outcome of government administration at the public’s disposal, and that clear channels and procedures for participation by civil society organizations and the private sector are established.
3) How much will it cost?
Results based strategic planning also has an operational component to respond to the question “How do we want to get there?” To achieve the objectives proposed in the strategic exercise, products and processes need to be designed and the necessary inputs calculated. Furthermore, the economic resources required to implement the proposals need to be made available and allocated, and coordinated action must be taken by the institutions and