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Public Financial Management for PRSP - Deutsches Institut für ...

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Stefan Leiderer et al.<br />

8 Recommendations<br />

Establishment of an operational link between <strong>PRSP</strong> and local planning and<br />

budgeting procedures<br />

Currently, there is no operational mechanism linking local planning and<br />

budgeting procedures to priorities set at the national level. Although some<br />

stakeholders doubt the need <strong>for</strong> such a link, if devolution is taken <strong>for</strong>ward, in<br />

particular in the sectors covered most prominently in the <strong>PRSP</strong> (health and<br />

education), such a link is indispensable. Particularly so when at the same time<br />

a meaningful <strong>PRSP</strong> approach is to be pursued.<br />

Such a link could be established either at the planning stage, e.g. by means of<br />

binding guidelines derived from the <strong>PRSP</strong> <strong>for</strong> the <strong>for</strong>mulation of district<br />

development plans; or in the execution phase, e.g. via protected sector transfers<br />

or conditional grants to the local level, which can ensure allocation of<br />

local expenditures according to national <strong>PRSP</strong> priorities.<br />

Obviously, there is a clear trade-off between full-fledged political, administrative<br />

and fiscal decentralisation of sector responsibility and the <strong>PRSP</strong> approach.<br />

There<strong>for</strong>e, a clear recommendation as to what exactly such a link<br />

should look like in order to not undermine the decentralisation process while<br />

at the same time ensuring the effective implementation of the Malawi <strong>PRSP</strong><br />

will require careful research and extensive discussion of all stakeholders<br />

involved (including local government level). To strike the right balance between<br />

the two strategies is one of the numerous difficult tasks the Government<br />

of Malawi needs to tackle over the next years.<br />

Improved donor coordination<br />

The government should take the lead in donor coordination. The responsibility<br />

of coordination, however, should not be left to the Malawian side alone.<br />

Donors should encourage, support and actively empower the GoM to take its<br />

lead in donor coordination by coordinating their activities as well as by harmonising<br />

their modes of aid delivery and reporting<br />

Better alignment of donor support to Malawian PFM processes<br />

In order to strengthen Malawian institutions and the <strong>for</strong>mal PFM processes<br />

and to reduce uncertainty in the system, donors should align their procedures<br />

144<br />

German Development <strong>Institut</strong>e

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