| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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The management of the Institute rests on a transformational leadership, positively influencing innovation, with a special focus on collaborative efforts. It values openness and civil service values, embraces creativity, transparency, accountability, ethics and professionalism.
The Institute works as a learning organization, concentrating a high level of dynamism and productivity within a small team with whom the management built individualized relationships, considering their needs, aspirations, and skills.
Work and responsibilities are characterized by a high level of delegation and staff are offered training opportunities inside and outside Lebanon, at the most prestigious institutions and are invited to share lessons learned. Senior staff are put in positions that stretch them beyond their current skill sets, and are coached to align IoF goals with their professional development and to help them grow, develop and learn new skills.
Communication channels within the various departments and the leadership are kept open and the Institute's orientations are openly discussed and communicated in an understandable, precise and engaging way. This is done every 5 years as the Institute undergoes an assessment of its capacities and activities in a participatory approach, therefore making sure that every team member is inspired and motivated to work towards this vision.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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Figuring among the top partners of Lebanon in the field of institutional cooperation, France contributed to the Lebanon's reconstruction through five financial protocols of a total of 1.3 billion francs, which included grants of 130 million francs to support the reforms of vital sectors, particularly that of PFM. Hence, 9.5 million francs were allocated to the Ministry of Finance for the establishment of the IoF and for the modernization of the accounting plan of enterprises. The IoF then enjoyed support from the Governments of Canada, the Netherlands, the EU, the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development and others, and was placed within the Ministry of Finance and firstly managed by French experts. It was transferred, in the year 2000, to Lebanese management, and granted the status of autonomous public agency in 2003.
Twenty years later, the Institute had catered for more than 50,000 beneficiaries. The Institute's direct beneficiary is the Ministry of Finance, which is composed of around 5,000 employees.
The Institute also caters to the community of PFM practitioners across the public sector in Lebanon, as around 14,000 persons benefited over 20 years from training programs on PFM related topics. Law enforcement agencies also benefited from training programs on combating financial crimes.
The Institute targets senior civil servants through high-level training workshops, publications, and a journal specialized in public finance and state modernization.
The IoF also caters for the private sector and the youth, as it is present in fora and holds meetings to discuss the content of citizens' guides, while students are invited to "Youth at the Ministry of Finance" programs. It is to staff as well as to students and citizens that the doors of the Library of Finance, which today houses more than 22'000 books and references on finance, administration, economics and law, are open.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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The Institute began as a French bilateral project funded partly by the French government through the Technical Cooperation Agency of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of France – ADETEF, and remained so between 1996 and 2000. In 2000, as the first Lebanese director was recruited and the institutionalization process began, it benefited from partial funding from the European Union for two years. In 2003, the Institute was granted the legal status of public autonomous agency operating under the tutelage the Minister of Finance.
Since then, it benefits from a yearly budget allocation from the MoF and enjoys independent management as well as financial and administrative autonomy. Its sources of funding today include: an annual share from the Ministry of Finance of Lebanon, grants and donations awarded by local, regional and international organizations, while some of its services are provided on a cost-recovery basis by external partners.
Initially created in 1996 to support capacity-building and human resources development at the Ministry of Finance at a time when PFM reforms were being undertaken, the Institute's mission between 1996 and 2001 was to improve the technical skills of the Ministry’s agents, develop their sense of adherence to a community and instill a culture of belonging within the Ministry.
As of 2001 and until 2005, the reforms themselves needed to be “embedded” through emphasis on improved procedures, implementation and improvement of human resource development strategy, staff selection, and the recruitment and induction training of a new generation of civil servants. Delivering specialized capacity building services, the Institute was able to improve its standing as a local magnet for continuing education and training, particularly for the Lebanese Public Sector.
Between 2005 and 2012, the Institute was able to consolidate its position as a sustainable source of high quality, specialized training and communication services in public financial management in Lebanon and the MENA region. Acquiescing to the need for a concerted effort to respond to common needs in training and capacity building in the MENA region, the Institute of Finance launched, with the support of its partners, the Governance Institutes Forum for Training in the Middle East and North Africa, GIFT-MENA, a South-South initiative that gathers 60 members from MENA and 20 partner institutions, among which figure the World Bank and the French government, for which the IoF acts as the permanent secretariat.
Based on the success of this platform and in an effort to encourage synergies among national capacity building providers and to be able to offer a coordinated training offer nationwide, the IoF contributed to the establishment of the National Training Network in 2014, gathering nowadays more than 20 representatives of the various training providers operating in the Lebanese public sector.
As a center of excellence with extensive experience in PFM, the IoF contributes nowadays to the support of CPAF and service delivery through training, capacity building and knowledge building. At the core of its practice figures cooperation, networking and the transfer of knowledge and good practices and the provision of assistance and consultancy in its areas of expertise. It promotes a culture of excellence and innovation in public sector and maintains an institutional management of high caliber, built on professional standards and a modern style of management.
In terms of human resources, the Institute was able to recruit and retain a group of 15 dedicated staff members who constitute its specialized personnel along with 8 equally dedicated general service staff members. The Institute's staff has been essential in translating the vision into a reality, and has participated on an equal footing to all of the training programs held at the Institute and abroad.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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The stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative were, in the 1995-1996, on the Lebanese side, the President of the Council of Ministers, the Minister of Finance and his advisors, and on the French side, the Minister of Finance and the French agency for international technical cooperation –ADETEF- which managed the establishment of the Institute. It was established with the primary support from the Government of France, and was subsequently supported by the Governments of Canada, The Netherlands, and the European Union. Lebanese management took over in the year 2000, and hence came the support of the nine consecutive Ministers of Finance, while the community of stakeholders expanded over the years to include all of the senior civil servants of the community of public financial managers throughout the Lebanese public sector.
Many donors also supported the Institute's national and regional projects and initiatives throughout the years, among which figure the Arab Fund for Economic and Social development, the Arab Planning Institute of Kuwait, the Islamic Development Bank, the ESCWA, the World Bank, UNDP, the Governments of France, Spain, Italy, Great Britain and the Netherlands, all of which hence became stakeholders involved in the elaboration of the local and regional capacity building agenda.
Indeed, asides its local direct institutional environment which is composed of the Ministry of Finance and its affiliated directorates and agencies, the IoF maintains 11 Memoranda of Understanding with local institutions and 15 with regional and international institutions and organizations, all of which are today involved in the design and support of the initiative.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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The core output for which the initiative was initially designed and implemented, is that it succeeded in establishing a culture of continuous learning within the Lebanese Ministry of Finance, hence offering key support to CPAF and PFM in particular, while seeking to improve service delivery by strengthening managerial capacities on one hand, and citizens’ knowledge on the other. Indeed, support to CPAF and service delivery by capacity building was provided through career-long training from induction to specialized technical training programs. In order to institutionalize training further, the Institute developed the first competency framework for senior civil servants, and fostered a culture of leadership and financial governance among middle and senior civil servants by encouraging them to dialogue and exchange among peers.
Capacity building was given further endorsement when the Government of Lebanon brought the IoF to participate in the establishment, in 2005, of a merit-based recruitment procedure for senior officials in leadership and policy-making positions to bring about a change in organizational culture and the enhancement of organizational performance. The IoF also undertook key steps to support policy reform for better PFM practices and developed a national Procurement Manual and standard bidding documents to ensure fair and transparent procurement practices, and implemented a comprehensive training strategy on public procurement with internationally recognized certified programs.
The IoF also contributed to the establishment of similar Institutes in Arab countries (Jordan, Palestine, Morocco) and promoted a pioneering initiative that is South-born, South-owned and South-managed through the Network of Civil Service Schools and Institute in the Middle East and North Africa Region – GIFT-MENA, the Secretariat of which it houses. Similarly, it contributed to the establishment of the Lebanese National Training Network to reinforce the culture of training in the public sector. Acquiescing to the importance of partnership for development, it is a member of 14 local, regional and international networks.
In its effort to provide support to service delivery, the IoF promoted citizens’ knowledge on fiscal and financial issues. It hence contributed to creating synergies between the State and the citizen through several outreach initiatives, the publication of 111 technical manuals, citizen guides, policy briefs and reports and its "Bibliothèque des Finances", with more than 25,000 references, and welcomes university students for “Youth at the Ministry of Finance” days. It also launched the first scientific journal specialized in PFM and state modernization in the Arab word in 2011.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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The IoF faced numerous challenges throughout its 20 years of existence, one core challenge being the fact that it is operating in an unstable, challenging and changing economic and security environment. Lebanon is facing one of the most critical challenges of its modern history: Syrian refugees fleeing the conflict constitute now 50% of the Lebanese population, weighing heavily on Lebanon's infrastructure, weakening confidence and security, and declining social cohesion. This in addition to structural and cyclical factors that hamper the smooth functioning of the administrative apparatus, in particular the absence of voted budgets since 2006, a public debt estimated at 139% of GDP at the end of 2015, outdated regulations that limit the implementation of modern managerial practices, the dominant position of central administration that creates administrative and bureaucratic burdens, and the lack of strategy regarding regularity and systematization of recruitment since the year 2000.
Moreover, the absence of a national strategy for training backed by a legal status instating the right of civil servants to training, the absence of linkages between training and career path development, and the absence of a link with the public budgeting process hindered the IoF’s work. However, this was overcome largely by the IoF's contribution to the creation of the National Training Network in an effort to strengthen the culture of training in the public sector, foster coordination between the various Lebanese service providers, promote civil service values and agree on a national training strategy.
Moreover, the IoF has a limited budget to run its operations and respond to the numerous training demands, while the size of its staff is limited to 15 full-time employees by the budget article of its establishment. These obstacles were overcome by resorting to grants and donations awarded by local, regional and international organizations and the provision of technical assistance, consultancy services and some training services on a cost-recovery basis by external partners and donors on one hand, and outsourcing and project-based recruiting on the other.
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