Project Case Study
Strengthening Palestine’s planning, budgeting and financial management processes
Helping the Palestinian Authority develop its technical and organisational capacity
The Oslo Agreement of 1993 established the Palestinian National Authority as an interim self-government body responsible for civil matters and internal security within the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
To assist in reaching a permanent peace settlement between Israel and the Palestine, it was judged important for the Palestinian National Authority to be able to demonstrate its ability to govern effectively.
To this end, in 2007 we were contracted by the Department for International Development to assist the Ministry of Planning & Administrative Development (MoPAD) and the Ministry of Finance in improving public financial processes and strengthening policy-making, national planning, monitoring and evaluation and aid coordination.
With team members embedded within both ministries we helped to further the government’s priorities and responded quickly to emerging requirements. In January 2009, following military action in Gaza, we supported the Ministry of Planning to co-ordinate the development of the Gaza Early Recovery and Reconstruction Plan. Three months later, the plan was presented at the Sharm el Sheikh Conference by Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad, and was commended by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Alongside supporting enhanced policy management processes, our team supported training and mentoring of ministry staff to enable development of 23 sector strategies, which formed the basis of the Palestine National Programme 2011-13.
We then helped the Palestinian National Authority assess the progress and impact of development initiatives by establishing a Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate, and a comprehensive monitoring framework, including performance indicators. We also assisted the Aid Management & Coordination Directorate to establish a comprehensive aid management information system database and evaluate and channel donor funding.
Additionally, our team worked with the Ministry of Finance to establish an infrastructure to roll-out programme budgeting processes. We helped transform the budget preparation process from a manual, spreadsheet-based submission to a fully automated system integrated within the new classification structure and producing an integrated, programme-based budget.
This involved reforming the Budget Classification System and the Chart of Accounts according to a programme budgeting approach, updating the Financial Procedures Manual, and producing a comprehensive budget development manual. We also assisted in the development of a 3-year macroeconomic framework and established a Macro Fiscal Unit within the Budget Directorate of the Ministry of Finance to facilitate effective financial planning.
This project supported Prime Minister Fayyad’s State Building Agenda and was instrumental in demonstrating the improved effectiveness of the Palestinian National Authority.
“Much of the brilliant work that Britain is doing is done through consultancy arrangements. I think, for example, of the work that is being done to build the capacity of Prime Minister Fayyad's office in Ramallah, so that if the two-state solution is implemented in the Middle East, he has the sinews of governance within his prime ministerial office [...] that sort of spending is immensely valuable. It is some of the best aid and development expenditure I have seen anywhere in the world.”
Hon. Andrew Mitchell MP, former Secretary of State for International Development
