This training is about cost and revenue estimation of policies for decision-making and budgeting purposes. The purpose of the training is to set out practical approaches to identifying and estimating costs and revenues of new policies or extensions of policies, so-called Fiscal Impact Assessment. The training touches upon both procedural and content aspects of Fiscal Impact Assessment.

ECORYS' expertise
ECORYS has significant experience of supporting public finance management reform and capacity building processes in Central and Eastern Europe, the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and in developing countries in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and other parts of the world. We have extensive experience of developing Fiscal Impact Assessment Methodologies. For the Slovak Ministry of Finance we have developed a Fiscal Impact Assessment Methodology, a procedure to compulsory use such Assessments for new draft legislation and a Fiscal Impact Assessment Format. For the Russian Ministry of Finance and line ministries we have developed a detailed cost estimation handbook and associated Guidelines to improve costing in federal ministries and federal agencies. We have provided training workshops to Russian government officials in developing reliable and verifiable cost estimates. In Bulgaria, Russia, Slovakia, Kosovo we have trained Ministry of Finance officials in budget analysis, including the critical analysis of financial and economic cost estimates. In the area of Technical Assistance our in-house experts have costed national strategies (incl. Poverty Reduction Strategies, National Development Plan), sector strategies in various sectors (education, health, culture, transport) and other important legislative proposals.

• Public Finance
• Public Finance Management
• Costing
• Fiscal Impact Assessment

This course is for finance and legal professionals of ministries and other central budget organisations. Participants are expected to have existing experience working on finance issues and a basic familiarity with the budget process and financial terms.  The course may also be appropriate for programme and finance managers of other public organisations who want to ensure their organisation can properly express the potential fiscal impacts of proposals being considered by the Government. The course can also be appropriate for staff of development partners to assess the quality of costings.

With regard to the costing / Fiscal Impact Assessment (FIA) process, the learning objectives are:

• Understand the purpose;
• Be able to describe the different stages of the costing / FIA process;
• Be able to describe the roles of the various stakeholders;
• Understand the sequence in conducting costings
• Appreciate the benefits of early and extensive consultation.

With respect to the content of FIA, the learning objectives are:

• Have the key principles for assessing cost impacts;
• Be able to identify the information requirements, including the need to generate supporting details of assumptions and costs;
• Be able to identify the cost categories of the economic classification that may be affected by the proposal;
• Understand the difference between fixed, semi-variable and variable costs and their importance in costing of policies;
• Know how to properly report;
• Be able to present explanatory material.