90140 March 2014 · Number 99 FY15-FY17 MNA Business Planning Shanu Biswas 1 Introduction: The new Bank structure that is to come into force on July 1, 2014 will bring with it a Regional Budgets: The Regions will be given 2 new business planning structure. This MNA K&L budget envelopes – the envelopes will not be Fast Brief provides a brief overview of this process. fungible. These budget envelopes are explained The focus here is on the Regions however some below: light is also shed on the budgeting process on the side of the Global Practices (GPs) and the Cross-  Cost of running the business: (Regional Cutting Areas of Engagement CCSAs). Program Management). This envelope includes funding for items such as Figure 1 below illustrates how the Senior management structures, CMU and regional Management Team (SMT) will distribute three non- unit staff, country office administration/ fungible envelopes to each of the Regions, the GPs facilities, ACS, regional learning and and the CCSAs. Figure 2 provides the flow of internal knowledge management. The funding for the Country Engagement envelope. current assumption is that all staff will be fully funded and that budgets will be Figure 1 roughly the same allocation as in FY14, SMT distributes up to three non-fungible adjusted for projected savings from the envelopes to each of the Regions and GP/CCSAs Expenditure Review. However, there will be a move during FY15 to allocations on a more normative basis.  Country Engagement: Funding for Regional, sub-Regional and Country work programs: Regional Vice-Presidents (RVPs) will allocate work program budgets to countries reflecting any top-down guidance provided from the SMT. Aggregate work program requirements and funding will be agreed between the RVPs and the GPVPs through a simplified Work Program Agreement (WPA) process. Budgets will then be allocated to the GPs for financial and knowledge services and to Regions for CMU deliverables and convening services. 1 Shanu Biswas, Chief Administrative Officer, Middle east and North Africa Region (MNA), The World Bank. introduced to simplify costing and negotiating Figure 2 WPAs. Also, programmatic approaches (PA product line) for ESW and TA will be encouraged. Country Engagement Planning-Key Guidelines: As Country Teams meet to formulate their FY15-17 plans, the following guidelines should be followed: On the WPA Envelope an adjustment will be made to reflect the SMT decision that program leaders will be funded 50% from the Country Engagement envelope and 50% from Regional Program Management. Further adjustments will be necessary to reflect other SMT decisions as they are announced. The focus will be on maximizing external funds – EFOs, RAS, TFs. Note that these external funds are to be included in the WPA. WPA Costing will be undertaken on the basis of the 3 year plans required for FY15-17. Standard, country-based (or Regional) coefficients will be used for BB funded IBRD/IDA LEN and SPN tasks. Note that coefficients are not “completion costs” but 3 year-average spending per task worked on. Also, coefficients will include project support from FM, Procurement, and Safeguards though excluding oversight functions and any stand-alone AAA products managed by those units. All lending Work Program Agreements (WPA): The purpose projects will be funded using standard coefficients of the Work Program Agreement (WPA) is for the for all tasks to be worked on, whether for FY15 Regions to IDENTIFY and SIZE the work program delivery or future delivery. Other product lines and for Global Practices to DELIVER the work (AAA) and funding sources (TF, RAS) will use program for a given country engagement, budget, manual task by task costing. and quality indicators. Task coding for GP WPAs will include no process WPA key features: As part of the new budget tasks (internal orders) (e.g., business development); planning process, SMT has endorsed the product lines are limited to Lending, ESW, TA, PA simplification of the WPA process. The key features (Programmatic Approach). Country Monitoring of the new WPA process are envisioned to be: tasks (e.g., Country economist work) are proposed to be placed under PA as a temporary code. ▫ Consistent process across the regions and global practices CMU managed tasks will be treated differently than before: the funding for CMU staff will come from ▫ Less transaction intensive the Regional Program Management envelope while the Country Engagement envelope can include a ▫ Single WPA between a region and GPVP – a limited amount of variable costs (e.g., STC, travel) total of 6 WPAs for the Bank. for CMU tasks (SCD, CPF, partner co-ordination), Third Party Monitoring, and support from GP staff. ▫ No budget loaded at task level. Teams can create new temporary AAA codes for GP input to CMU tasks for planning and budget There will be a greater focus on identifying the allocation purposes only. Actual costs will be work program rather than costing task by task as charged to the main CMU code. well as a move to wholesale WPAs. Towards this end lending and supervision coefficients will be No CMU contingencies are permitted and only an March 2014 · Number 99 · 2 RVP-held Country Engagement contingency is Cost of running the business for Global Practices and allowed. CCSAs and includes funding for items such as management structures, administrative costs, and Regional tasks and Regional units such as MNARS knowledge and learning. These will be determined (Regional Strategy), MNCMI (the Center for on a normative basis. Mediterranean Integration in Marseille) and the MNACE (Chief Economist’s office) are treated as Country Engagement Funding to deliver Regional, CMUs and their programs are considered as part of sub-Regional and Country work programs. This is Country Engagement. For the FY15-17 cycle, a for the GPs not the CCSAs. This will proceed as separate RLT discussion will determine the broad agreed with the Regions through the simplified directions of MNA’s Regional tasks. Work Program Agreement (WPA) process for financial and knowledge services. Process Steps and timeline: The immediate task at hand includes the CMU business plans which are Global Engagements including non-regional and to be ready by cob Friday April 4. The SMUs non-country specific AAA, and partnerships which (acting for the GPs) will provide their inputs and are based on proposals by GPVPs with RVP are to be consulted and kept informed by the endorsement. CMUs. The SMUs (acting for the GPs) are to provide SMU/GP managed TF tasks to the Country Institutional, General and Administrative units will Engagement Plan for FY15-FY17. The next steps receive one budget envelope and units would be and dates are outlined below: benchmarked and normalized through the expenditure review exercise, to ensure they are By March 31 (TBC) Country Envelopes will be sized appropriately for cost-effective delivery. announced following SMT decisions on VPU budgets. By April 4 CMUs are to prepare a list of tasks and Contact MNA K&L estimated costs by GP in the planning tool for Director, MNAOS: Gerard Byam FY15-FY17 - including RAS and CMU-managed Manager, MNADE: Preeti S. Ahuja TFs. SMUs are to prepare a list of SMU-managed Regional Knowledge and Learning Team: tasks funded by BETFs and EFOs along with Omer Karasapan and Mark Volk estimated disbursements in the planning tool for Tel #: (202) 473 8177 FY15–FY17. MNA K&L Fast Briefs: http://go.worldbank.org/OXADZV71I0 By April 4 -15 a review of the planning data will take place and units are to provide qualitative The MNA Fast Briefs are intended to summarize lessons inputs, if asked by the Center. learned from MNA and other Bank Knowledge and Learning activities. The briefs do not necessarily reflect the By April 15 the RMT retreat which starts on that views of the World Bank, its board or its member countries. day will include a FY15 Country Engagement session for further discussion and refinement. By April 16 – 21 MNA may need to circulate and discuss the plan data with GPVPs By April 21 submission to SMT By May 5-6 SMT Meeting followed by final funding decisions and GPs to start internal budget planning Budget Buckets for Other VPUs: Global Practices will be given 3 budget envelopes (CCSAs will have 2 envelopes) - the envelopes are not fungible. These include: March 2014 · Number 99 · 3