Workshop with public authorities on building institutional capacity for estimating the costs of measures for implementation of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement

On 1 July 2022, the EU-funded Project “Support for structured policy dialogue, coordination of the implementation of the Association Agreement and enhancement of the legal approximation process” organised an online workshop on the topic “Costing of measures for implementation of the Association Agreement”. 

The workshop aimed to familiarize civil servants in the Republic of Moldova from central public authorities with the Project’s work on building institutional capacity for estimating the costs of public policy documents, emphasising measures related to the implementation of the EU-Moldova Association Agreement. 

The workshop included 9 panellists and gathered over 170 participants from various Moldovan Government institutions, including policy and financial divisions and those working with the analysis, monitoring and evaluation of public policies. 

Costing in the public sphere means the forecasting of the financial and non-financial resources required to implement a specific measure included within a public policy document, such as the resources to perform specific activities, carry out projects, acquire assets and any other related actions. 

The importance of costing cannot be understated since the Government requires a high degree of confidence in its estimates of the financial resources that it needs to allocate during the budgeting process. Furthermore, given Moldova’s EU Candidate State status and the related commitments that will need to be fulfilled, the Government must ensure that it has a clear understanding of any additional resources that it will require, including any additional support it may need from external partners. 

The workshop began with a an overview of the Project’s activities, and covered: i) assessment of the current practice in the Moldovan Government institutions regarding the costing of public policy documents, based on specific interviews with various Government institutions, analysis of key legislative documents and other available guidance issued by competent authorities, and discussions with other donor-funded initiatives; ii) a Costing Manual, prepared by the Project Team, which is based on the existing guidance within the relevant Government institutions and enhanced with further clarifications, methodological instructions and examples, including guidance for organisation of the costing and budgeting process. This Manual can be used independently, without prior study of other Government methodological tools. In this context, it is worth to mention that the Project team also prepared a separate Costing Guide which provides details on the approaches to be used for the costing of typical measures included within the National Action Plan to Implement the EU-Moldova Association Agreement (NAPIAA), with attention to important uncertainties which may occur in this process. This Guide includes examples of typical NAPIAA measures and describes the recommended approach to their costing. 

In the second part of the workshop, it was presented an overview highlighting the activities and analysis that participants can expect during the upcoming planned capacity-building events in 2022. During the feedback session, more than 90% of the participants considered costing to be not as difficult as imagined or is in line with their expectations.