Financial Programming Framework for Zimbabwe

MEFMI conducted a follow-up in-country workshop on the Financial Programming Framework (FPF) for Zimbabwe, from 5 – 9 June 2017. This was conducted at the Kadoma Hotel and Conference Center, Kadoma, Zimbabwe. Building on the successes of interventions through implementation of demand-driven, tailor-made country specific capacity building activities initiated in Phase IV (2012-2016) has been a success story which saw the development of tangible capacity tools and frameworks across MEFMI client institutions. The experience in Phase IV showed that more proactive countries have benefitted the most from these in-country activities. In Phase V (2017-2021), the Institute will continue to broaden the delivery of more country specific activities by ring-fencing resources to meet the needs of Member Countries and Institutions. Furthermore, MEFMI will make efforts to proactively address institutional capacity challenges which are known to exist in client institutions so as to achieve equitable benefits for all the countries.

In line with the MEFMI Phase V Strategic Plan, the Macroeconomic Management Programme (MMP) conducted this activity at Kadoma Hotel and Conference Center in Kadoma, Zimbabwe. The training workshop commenced with the opening session procedures conducted by the Programme Manager, Mr. Senei Molapo. He thanked everyone and reminded the participants that the workshop was driven by, and designed to specifically address Zimbabwe’s country specific needs. He mentioned that MEFMI and the officials have thus far made significant progress and the workshop would establish an effective financial program for the country.  Work on the FPF for Zimbabwe started with four phases in which the phase 1 workshop was held on 16-20 March 2015, the phase 2 workshop was held on 21-15, September 2015, and the Phase 3 workshop was held on 4-8 April, 2016. The phase 4 workshop was held from 22-26 August 2016, as well as the launch of the program. He further outlined that the success of the assignment depended on the financial programming group being able to work as a strong team. The team includes officials from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZIMSTAT), the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, and the Accountant General’s Office.
To clarify that the key goal in the formulation of the FPF is to determine the policy decisions for maintaining macroeconomic stability, Mr. Molapo postulated that it can cover regulation of money supply aimed at both guiding the domestic aggregate demand and the maintenance of equilibrium in the balance of payments, minimization of unemployment and other macroeconomic goals through the monetary and fiscal policies. Analysis of events that occur in the economy and correctness of the adjusted economic policy significantly depend on economic data and statistical indicators included to the financial programming process. Thus, the program should build upon functional interactions between macroeconomic indicators and the key macroeconomic equations dwelling in the national accounts system. He stressed that the inter-account interactions boost the quality of analysis of economic processes on the previous period and future, and hence, the need for a Flow of Funds. He then expressed the desire for successful outcomes of the workshop, and declared the training workshop opened.
The official closing of the workshop was done by Dr. Sehliselo Mpofu, Director MMP, MEFMI. In her closing remarks, she thanked everybody for the hard work and commitment that they had so far displayed. In particular, she thanked Dr. Anna Lennblad, the Lead Consultant for her continued acceptance to work with MEFMI, stressing the point that there was no doubt that her support will be indelible, as well as her general constructive impact on MEFMI’s capacity building efforts. She then concluded by noting that there was still work outstanding in terms of economic sector distribution reconciliations in which there were discrepancies that needed to be investigated. In addition, the Flow of Funds revealed that there were still some underlying data gaps which warranted that more discussions among the Zimbabwean Principals in the respective key participating institutions, and MEFMI be done as an attempt to   close the gap. She then officially closed the workshop.