Proper planning of municipal budgets, a precondition for local economic development

The Kosovo Local Government Institute (KLGI) held a training session on “The Local Finance Framework and Financial Planning”, which aimed to analyse the current state of the local finance framework, as well as financial planning, management and control.

Participants in this training session were officials from the Directorates for Budget and Finance of municipalities with fewer than 22 thousand inhabitants.

Furthermore, the training session aimed to produce concrete recommendations/proposals, based on the problems set out by the municipalities, to facilitate and improve the process of planning and executing budgets.

During the session, budget planning, management and execution and their impact on local economic development were presented. It was also stressed that the local economic development agenda includes a joint strategy serving sustainable development. At the same time, municipalities, through their commitment during the budget process, must cooperate closely with line ministries to address the challenges identified.

It is extremely important that these municipalities look at funding opportunities in order to achieve sustainable planning and maintain financial stability. To put the budget at the service of development, the link between policy planning and budget planning must be strengthened. Therefore, during the budget process the link between the municipalities' strategic development priorities and medium-term fiscal planning should be defined, in particular by including information on performance by budget programme and functional classification.

Medium-term priorities should include the main objectives of effective governance towards sustainable and inclusive economic growth, stronger social welfare and sectoral development.

The KLGI Institute, through its educational programmes, remains committed to working closely with central and local institutions to build the capacities of officials and improve policies in the service of sustainable development.

This activity was carried out within the project ‘Support for Stronger and More Sustainable Municipalities (SSSM)’, funded by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Kosovo.