Guidelines nr 1: Budget Support Guidelines - Programming, Design and Management - A modern approach to Budget support
Budget support is an aid modality. It should not be seen as an end in itself, but as a means of delivering better aid and achieving sustainable development results. It involves i) dialogue, ii) financial transfers to the national treasury account of the partner country, iii) performance assessment and iv) capacity development, based on partnership and mutual accountability.
These Guidelines have been prepared by unit DEVCO “Budget Support, Public Finance and Macroeconomic Analysis” of the EuropeAid in close collaboration with all DEVCO Directorates and the EEAS and has benefited from many discussions and contributions received from staff in Headquarters and EU Delegations.
The Guidelines reflect the new policy on budget support spelled out in the Communication “The Future Approach to EU Budget Support to Third Countries” (October 2011) and corresponding Council Conclusions (May 2012), and replace the previous Guidelines on General Budget Support of January 2007 as well as the previous Guidelines on Support to Sector Programmes of July 2007 as regards to Sector Budget Support.
The Guidelines are structured as follows.
Chapter 2 summarises the basic definitions, policy context and objectives of budget support.
Chapter 3 describes new budget support governance arrangements,
Chapter 4 sets out how the fundamental values are to be used and assessed as preconditions for budget support, and during implementation.
Chapter 5 outlines key themes that need to be considered throughout the programme cycle, focusing on eligibility criteria, policy dialogue, risk assessment and management, performance assessment, domestic revenue mobilisation, accountability, fraud and corruption, and capacity development.
Chapter 6 summarises the programme cycle and outlines what analysis and documentation needs to be prepared at each stage.
A number of Annexes provide further guidance on thematic topics and procedural requirements, including annotated templates used during programme preparation and implementation.
In light of the experience in using these Guidelines, it is planned to make modifications and adaptations as and when necessary.
To help in this work, comments, questions and suggestions are welcomed and should be sent to unit DEVCO/A2 at: EuropeAid-A2@ec.europa.eu until the 31/12/2012 and to unit DEVCO/A4 at europeaid-a4@ec.europa.eu starting from the 01/01/2013.
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