Support for capacity building of the public expenditure chain actors in Agadez, Diffa, Tahoua and Zinder regions

The third Indicative Cooperation Programme (ICP III) between Niger and Luxembourg covering the period 2016–2020 aims at a full alignment with national strategies and policies and a delegation of the implementation of planned actions to national partners through a programme-based approach by adopting the national public accounting and procurement procedures.

Within this framework and with the intention of maximising the effects of the sectoral interventions already under way under national execution (education and vocational training, water and sanitation), the Support for capacity building of the public expenditure chain actors in Agadez, Diffa, Tahoua and Zinder regions project was launched. This intervention is inspired by the Public Expenditure support project for the Dosso region project, which strengthened the capacities of actors in the public expenditure chain in the Dosso region under the ICP II, and whose final evaluation highlighted an intervention approach potentially replicable in the other regions of Luxembourg's Cooperation intervention.

The Support for capacity building of the public expenditure chain actors in Agadez, Diffa, Tahoua and Zinder regions project fits perfectly within the framework of the Niger's Public Financial Management Reform Programme (PRGFP IV) 2017–2020 and is indeed aligned with a number of its specific objectives and operational programmes. The PRGFP IV was developed on the conclusions of the last PEFA (Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability) evaluation, carried out in 2016 with a report published in 2017, showing a low level of capacity in Public Financial Management in Niger. In addition, more marked weaknesses were observed at the decentralised level with a lack of financial, logistical and human resources and difficulties in mastering the changes introduced by the recent West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) reforms, particularly the non-appropriation of concepts and tools related to the performance budgeting.

In this context, the overall objective of the Support for capacity building of the public expenditure chain actors in Agadez, Diffa, Tahoua and Zinder regions project is to contribute to the strengthening of public finance management in Niger by

• enhancing the management of budget allocations and the efficiency of the public expenditure chain;
• strengthening the preparation, implementation, monitoring and control mechanisms as well as the capacities of the main services operating in this field.

The specific objective is to improve the performance of the public expenditure chain in the regions of Agadez, Diffa, Tahoua and Zinder. The main beneficiaries of the Project are the deconcentrated technical services of the Ministry of Finance, namely the Regional Budget Directorates, the Regional Treasuries and the Public Procurement and Financial Commitment Regional Control Services.

The intervention will contribute, on the one hand, to the training of human resources and, on the other hand, to the provision of the material resources needed to improve working conditions and thus the performance of the players in the chain of public expenditure in the target regions. Ad hoc support will also be deployed at central level, in particular for the benefit of programme managers in Luxembourg's Cooperation partner ministries.