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Within the framework of a new technical cooperation project between the DMFAS Programme and the Ministry of Finance of Burundi, funded through a World Bank grant, DMFAS conducted off- and on-site training activities at the Direction de la Dette (DD) in Bujumbura between July and December 2021.
Remote DMFAS training was provided to the IT support staff of the DD in July, which allowed for the installation of the latest DMFAS release and strengthened local IT capacities for the maintenance of DMFAS. Nevertheless, difficulties linked to the weak internet connection required the length of the activity to be extended to cover all the agenda.
In light of the connection problems, the DD requested that the following training activities be conducted on-site. With the reopening of international travel, UNCTAD fielded missions to Bujumbura to conduct DMFAS training in October and again in December 2021. The first training up-dated the knowledge of DD staff on using DMFAS, assisted in validating the database and reviewed data validation and local DMFAS procedures.
The training in December focused on producing debt reports and included a debt statistics workshop where the DD staff was trained on the key international debt statistics guidelines. The workshop concluded with the preparation of a draft statistical bulletin and a recommendation to publish it in early 2022.
Words from participants
“The knowledge acquired during the workshop helped me improve my capacities in compiling debt statistics”
“ As a manager of the Debt Directorate, these activities have been very useful in that, thanks to the users guides and debt reports generated from DMFAS, I will be able to do analysis and propose opinions and considerations that will enlighten decision-makers about public debt. This training is very important for our institution because we need to know at what level the debt would be useful or harmful to the country. The statistical bulletin will allow the recipients, namely the government authorities, to see how much confidence the creditors have in them through the transparency of their figures.”
This project closed at the end of 2021. Initially, it included activities to strengthen capacities in debt portfolio analysis and a feasibility study for the integration of DMFAS with the local integrated financial management information system. With the delays linked to the pandemic, these activities will be included in a follow-up project.
Participants at the debt statistics workshop, Bujumbura, December 2021