Leadership for Managing Reforms

We support people, teams, and institutions to envision, design, and implement policy reforms. That is why we offer learning events that stimulate public officials’ personal capabilities and growth combined with content related to their expertise. We mostly focus on interaction and communication capacities, problem-solving, networking, digital skills, policy cycles, and management. We support teams in public administration in organizing their work based on trust and values and explore modalities for joint problem-solving that work best for them, bringing in innovation and a spirit of joint achievements. We also help public institutions to advance as knowledge-centered, resilient, and innovative organizations. In turn, we expect public institutions to strengthen their intra- and inter-institutional coordination as well as leadership skills centered around the effort to bring new thinking to designing reforms that support green, smart, and fair economic growth.

Topic lead

Polona Sirnik

Officer, Leadership and Learning Ecosystems

polona.sirnik(at)cef-see.org

2023 Highlights

In 2023 we will continue to support the mechanisms for the coordinated and participatory Economic Reform Programme (ERP) process that is a part of the FISR2 project - Structural Reforms Better Integrated Within Fiscal Frameworks. This entails systematically addressing the challenges in the coordination process. We will be addressing improved coordination through strengthening capacities such as: team work and action planning; collaborative problem-solving; communication and writing; negotiation techniques; digitalization of the ERP; building on personal strengths and leadership capacities. In terms of the format of our activities we also introduced coaching for the ERP coordinators and an approach to team-planning that is entirely participatory based and aims to address the coordination process of the ERP with early involvement of all stakeholders, and iterative cycles of co-creation.

Related events

PACT MKD3 (L2): Business and Change Management

Certification Module: March 20 – June 6, 2023

Digital Communication for Public Officials

Webinar: March 27, 2023IWebinar: March 28, 2023IWebinar: March 31, 2023IWebinar: April 4, 2023IWebinar: April 7, 2023

Strengthening Communication Skills: From Verbal Communication to Reporting Audit Results

Effective communication is key to performing successful audit activities. Some argue that for internal audit professionals to be successful in their roles, strong communication skills are even more important than the technical skills. Knowing how to deal with different stakeholders and providing them with clear information is therefore critical as the way audit findings and recommendations are communicated impacts the perceived quality and value of the audit.

Webinar: April 12, 2023IWebinar: May 10, 2023IWorkshop: May 31 – June 2, 2023

Collaborative Approach to Impact Assessment 1 - North Macedonia

Workshop: April 25 – 26, 2023

Collaborative Approach to Impact Assessment 2 - North Macedonia

Online Course: May 8 – September 29, 2023

ERP 2024-2026: Strategic Planning and Integrated Coordination: Bosnia and Herzegovina

Workshop: May 30 – 31, 2023

Knowledge Sharing within the Network of Regional Experts

Meeting: June 1 – 30, 2023

ERP 2024-2026: Strategic Planning and Integrated Coordination: North Macedonia

Workshop: June 12 – July 14, 2023

ERP 2024-2026: Strategic Planning and Integrated Coordination: Albania

Workshop: June 12 – July 14, 2023

ERP 2024-2026: Strategic Planning and Integrated Coordination: Türkiye

Workshop: June 12 – July 14, 2023

ERP 2024-2026: Strategic Planning and Integrated Coordination: Serbia

Workshop: June 12 – July 14, 2023

Empowering Public Institutions to Become Learning Organizations

Public institutions operate in a dynamic and ever-changing environment that presents a variety of challenges and opportunities. To succeed in this environment, public institutions must be proactive, innovative, and able to work collaboratively with other organizations and stakeholders. They also need to have a strong sense of purpose and be committed to continuous learning and improvement. In this context during recent training of trainers, we were happy to explore what it takes for a public institution to transform into a learning organization following the CEF’s methodology of becoming a learning organization.

WeLead Project Steering Committee Prioritizes Development Topics for Young Professionals in the Western Balkans

We are pleased to announce that the steering committee for the “WeLead: EU Scheme for Young Professionals in the Western Balkans” project successfully concluded its first meeting. Held on March 9, 2023, in Belgrade, Serbia, and online, the meeting was attended by alumni representatives from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, as well as representatives of the European Commission from DG NEAR, and the CEF. Observers from EU delegations in Belgrade and Pristina and OECD OPSI were also present.

Professional Coaching: Driving Success for Economic Reform Programme Coordinators

As part of the EU-funded multi-beneficiary project “Structural Reforms Better Integrated Within Fiscal Frameworks” (FISR2), we offer to the Economic Reform Programme (ERP) Coordinators and their team members coaching sessions. These structured one-on-one sessions are an opportunity to reflect on their professional relations with other stakeholders and their ability to coordinate and manage them. We are happy to share some reflections by Amina Mulabdić from the Directorate for Economic Planning in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Elson Caka from the Albanian Ministry of Finance, Jovan Borišić from the Public Policy Secretariat of the Republic of Serbia, and Bojana Bošković from the Montenegrin Ministry of Finance about the value of such professional development opportunities.

Our Strong Partnership with the Dutch Ministry of Finance

This week we were happy to welcome Angelique van Haasteren and Annemiek Hellemons from the International Cooperation Directorate at the Dutch Ministry of Finance. With the support of the Dutch Ministry of finance, we provide a platform to public officials from both the CEF constituency as well as the Dutch constituency at the International Monetary Fund, The World Bank, and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to share knowledge, make meaningful connections, and shape their country’s reform efforts.

We Are Supporting Western Balkans towards EU Integration

CEF Director Jana Repanšek attended the Diplomatic Corps Reception hosted by the Slovene Prime Minister Robert Golob and the President of the Republic, Nataša Pirc Musar. The annual reception was also a chance to meet the ambassadors from our constituency and wider, and touch upon focus areas for the capacity development of public officials, teams, and institutions in the Western Balkans.

Discussing FISR2 Progress and Way Forward with Project's Steering Committee

To ensure learning and knowledge sharing activities within the “Structural Reforms Better Integrated within Fiscal Frameworks” (FISR2) project are tailored to the specific needs of EU candidates and potential candidates from the Western Balkans and Türkiye, we regularly consult these also with the project’s steering committee. Received feedback is used for the design and delivery of the FISR2 project activities. The steering committee also acts as a platform for strengthening cooperation among its members, Economic Reform Programme (ERP) Coordinators whereby they have an opportunity to share any dilemmas, trends, and ideas for improvement or ERP processes .

Start of the EU Funded Project WeLead: EU Scheme for Young Professionals in the Western Balkans

The start of a new year brings new year’s resolutions and new goals for many of us. We are excited to announce that with the beginning of 2023, we are bringing a new capacity development project funded by the EU “WeLead: EU Scheme for Young Professionals in the Western Balkans” to life. In the period 2023-2026, the project will contribute to good neighborly relations and the advancement of the EU integration process of the Western Balkans.

Learning Never Stops

We enjoyed talking to Vesna Cvetanova about her experience attending available learning opportunities within the multi-beneficiary capacity development project “Structural Reforms Better Integrated Within Fiscal Frameworks” (FISR2) funded by the European Union. Ms. Cvetanova, Head of the Macroeconomic Policy Department at the Ministry of Finance of North Macedonia, has been involved in the Economic Reform Programme (ERP) process in North Macedonia for several years. In this capacity, attending FISR2 learning events has been of particular professional interest to her as through this project we aim to strengthen the integration of structural reforms within fiscal frameworks in the ERPs.

2023 Learning and Knowledge Sharing Calendar is Out Now

As a key learning partner for public officials in South East Europe, we invite you to take a look at the 2023 learning calendar and start making your learning plans for the coming year. Our colleagues Nina Agić and Natasha Ilijeva Acevska share insights about our 2023 learning and knowledge sharing program highlights across key thematic priorities for our work. These include public financial management, central banking, leadership for managing reforms and learning and knowledge ecosystems.

We Took Over Co-Chairing of the learn4dev Network

We were happy to reconnect with learn4dev partners at the network’s annual meeting in Paris and update each other on the state of play in development-related activities. This year’s meeting discussions focused on ways to promote gender equality in training and learning.

Network of Regional Experts: Sharing Best Practices about Economic Reform Programmes

With the implementation of the EU-funded multi-beneficiary project “Structural Reforms Better Integrated within Fiscal Frameworks” (FISR2), we are supporting EU candidates and potential candidates from the Western Balkans and Turkey to strengthen the quality and implementation of their the Economic Reform Programmes (ERP). One of the important areas of support within FISR2 includes also better knowledge management and exchange on the ERP process. Here the Network of Regional Experts (NRE) plays an important role.

Establishing a Knowledge Sharing Culture at the Public Revenue Office in North Macedonia

We were pleased to talk to colleagues at the Public Revenue Office (PRO) from North Macedonia to learn about their institutional learning needs and explore opportunities to jointly advance our cooperation. We are happy to share some of their thoughts about the benefits learning with us brings to the PRO staff.

Autumn Brings Several Learning Opportunities for Central Bank Officials

This fall we successfully delivered several learning activities for officials working at regional central banks and financial supervisory authorities. We discussed important developments and lessons learned in the areas of on-site banking supervision, accounting and financial reporting, and monetary policy. We complemented the program of the events with officials presenting practices implemented in their institutions.

Why Writing Is More an Art Than a Science

Since 2008, Paul McClure has been regularly lecturing at the CEF workshops on communication topics. He has helped many public officials upgrade the effectiveness of their written communications in English, working with course participants from all CEF member countries and several adjoining EU member states. We were happy to talk to Paul, our associate fellow, about why writing effective, clear, and concise messages is important.