Accelerating the transition out of fragility - the role of finance and public financial management reform

15 - 16 November 2010

Venue:

Coin Street neighbourhood centre

Details

This is the sixth in a series of annual conferences on development finance and public financial management reform organised by the Centre for Aid and Public Expenditure at ODI. The conference will focus on the practical and policy aspects of how to use finance to support fragile states in their transition out of fragility and the associated implications for public financial management. The conference is being organised jointly with the IMF Fiscal Affairs Department.

The conference intends to work toward a set of “guiding principles “ encapsulating lessons learnt on how to deploy finance and support financial management reform in fragile states. The conference is intended to be participatory and will focus around a number of facilitated panels and plenary discussions across five sessions. Each session will be led by a carefully selected panel. To encourage fruitful discussion at the actual event, the conference is invitation only. Discussion over the two days will be focussed around four main themes:

Delivering effective financial support – joining the dots from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe
Developing local financial management capacity – moving from quick fixes to sustained reforms.
The role of transparency and accountability
Public financial management reform in fragile states – what is working and why

Ahead of the conference, ODI will produce issue papers to help stimulate these discussions, which will become available online on the days of the conference itself. The lessons learned will be captured in audio recordings, video footage and a conference report, which we will disseminate after the conference.

Agenda

Day 1
Monday 15 November

8.45 Registration and coffee

9.30 Welcome address

Alison Evans – Director, ODI

9.45 Introduction to the conference

Marcus Manuel - Head of CAPE; Director of the ODI Budget Strengthening Initiative
Sanjeev Gupta - Deputy Director, Fiscal Affairs Department, IMF

10.00 ‘Setting the scene’

Steve Symansky, former staff member IMF Fiscal Affairs Department
Edward Hedger Senior Research Fellow ODI

10.30 Tea and Coffee Break

11.00 Keynote session: Country perspectives on finance and financial management reform

This session will explore the challenges and opportunities for financing and reform from the perspective of current and former Ministers of Finance in ‘fragile states’. It will set the agenda from a country standpoint which will then be taken up in subsequent sessions of the conference.

Chair:

Alison Evans – Director, ODI

Panel:

Augustine Ngafuan - Minister of Finance, Government of Liberia
Samura Kamara - Vice President and Minister of Finance, Government of Sierra Leone
Emilia Pires - Minister of Finance, Government of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
Mustafa Mastoor - Deputy Minister of Finance, Afghanistan

Plenary discussion

12.30 Lunch

13.15 Session 1: Delivering effective financial support – joining the dots from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe

Chair:

Matthias Witt - Head of Public Finance, Public Administration and Anti-Corruption, GTZ (tbc)

Panel:

Gabriel Negatu - Director, Governance Division, African Development Bank
Mark Lowcock - Director-General for Country Programmes, DFID
Anand Rajaram - Sector Manager, Public Sector Reform and Capacity Building Unit, Africa Region, World Bank
Jon Lomey - Director , Development Cooperation Directorate OECD

Plenary and table discussions

15:00 Tea and coffee Break

15.30 Session 2: Developing local financial management capacity – moving from quick fixes to sustained reforms

Chair:

Marco Cangiano - Assistant Director Fiscal Affairs Dept IMF

Panel:

Graham Scott - Executive Chairman, Southern Cross Advisers; former Secretary to the Treasury, New Zealand
Mark Plant - Deputy Director, Africa Department, IMF
Ephrem Gondha - President, Reform Committee, Ministry of Finance, Democratic Republic of Congo
Sanjay Vany - Lead Financial Management Specialist, World bank

Plenary and table discussions

18.00 Drinks reception

Day 2
Tuesday 16 November 2010

09.00 Coffee on arrival

09.30 Reflections on first day and points for meeting conclusions

10.00 Session 3: The role of transparency and accountability

Chair:

Simon Maxwell Senior Research Fellow ODI

Panel:

John Morlu - Auditor-General, Liberia
Karim Nashashibi - Advisor to the Prime Minister, Palestinian National Authority
Warren Krafchik - Director, International Budget Partnership
Joachim Wehner - Lecturer, London School of Economics
Gavin Woods - Former Chair of the Parliament Accounts Committee, South Africa

Plenary and table discussions

11.00 Tea and Coffee Break

12.00 Lunch

13.00 Session 4: Public financial management reform in fragile states – what is working and why

Chair:

Michael Anderson - Director-General for policy and Global Issues, DFID

Panel:

Keith Muhakanizi - Deputy Secretary to the Treasury, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development, Uganda
Matt Andrews - Assistant Professor, Harvard Kennedy School
Lulzim Ismajli - Director of Treasury, Ministry of Finance, Kosovo
Camille Karamaga - Regional PFM Adviser for West Africa, IMF; former Director of Budget, Ministry of Finance, Rwanda

Plenary and table discussions

14.30 Tea and Coffee break

15.00 Facilitated session: Drawing policy-relevant lessons

Chairs: