In October 2014, the FSVC entered into a cooperative agreement with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to promote stronger and more transparent management of public finances in Angola. At the request of USAID/Angola, FSVC delivered a program to improve both the supply and demand sides of public financial management (PFM), by 1) strengthening the capacity of the Government of the Republic of Angola (GRA) to manage public financial resources effectively, and 2) building the capacity of local civil society organizations (CSOs) to successfully advocate for greater transparency and accountability.
- FSVC’s program included 8 activities with the GRA on international best practices in budget management with a focus on specific tools and mechanisms; namely, options for decentralization of the budget, approaches to budget risk management, effective management of state owned enterprises (SoEs), medium-term budget planning, models for forecasting revenues, and processes and procedures for cash management.
- FSVC also implemented 5 activities with a group of 11 CSOs representing the health, education and civil justice sectors on improving their knowledge of the budget process and their capacity to advocate for more effective use of budget resources to support social programs.
Throughout this program, FSVC maintained a flexible approach in order to adapt to requests from both local counterparts and USAID/Angola, often to address urgent challenges caused by the ongoing economic crisis. This flexibility allowed FSVC to deliver timely, relevant and critical assistance to support Angola’s efforts to improve the management of public financial resources.
Over the course of the program, FSVC recruited 17 volunteer experts from the public and private sectors. The volunteer experts were leaders in their areas of expertise and contributed greatly by sharing their knowledge and practical expertise with the counterpart institutions. The recruited volunteer experts came from among others, KPMG LLP, Colorado State University, New York State Budget Office, the U.S. Export-Import Bank, Manchester Metropolitan University, the Law Commission of the UK, Taxpayers for Common Sense, Common Cause, United Nations Development Program and the World Bank.
Program Impact
- 186 GRA officials trained on best practices in public financial management.
- 5 PFM trainers trained from the Ministry of Finance – Public Finance Training Institute (INFORFIP) on public financial management topics; the trainers will be utilized by INFORFIP in the future as the need arises.
- 25 representatives trained from 11 local CSOs.
- Establishment of the first-ever CSO budget monitoring watchdog group in Angola, called the “Participatory Budget Coalition of CSOs” or GOSCOP.