An Overview of MTSS In The

Context of Policy, Planning and

Budgeting
By:
L.A. Adekunle,
Deputy Director Dev. Planning,
Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget
Content

 Introduction – Poser
 What is MTSS?
 What MTSS is not?
 MTSS in the context of Policy, Planning and
Budgeting
 Relationship between different Plans
 Conclusion.
Introduction – Posers

1) Why should government Plan?

 It is not new that Nigeria fell into recession in 2016 Q4 and just came out of
recession with GDP growth rate of 0.55 released by FBS for 2017 Q3
 State government revenues have declined while debt level have
increased
 Due to declining revenues most State govts could not meet their Rec.exp.
 States remain heavily reliant on FGN for revenues with several states in
deficit
 States are more vulnerable to external shocks (e.g oil prices)
 Fiscal sustainability still hard to attain
 Introduction – Posers

1) Why should government Plan?

 Programs and projects to be delivered,
 Strategies to implement progams and projects
2) What are the challenges?
 Availability of resources (financial and human),
 Prioritisation,
 Sequencing,
 Resourcing prioritized programs and projects –trade-offs,
 Future recurrent cost implications
 Introduction – Posers

3) Purpose of Planning:
 Planning helps people in concentrating their efforts on the most important jobs rather than
wasting time on lesser important work.
 Planning also helps to minimize the cost of performance and eliminate unproductive efforts.
 It also helps the management in adopting and adjusting according to the changes that take
place in the environment.
 Planning also provides a basis for team work as when the goals are properly defined,
assignments can be fixed and all the members can start contributing in the achievement of
the objectives.
 Planning gives a sense of direction and ensured that efforts are being put to useful purpose
instead of being wasted.
 Planning also facilitate control because without planning there will be nothing to control
 What is Medium Term Sector Strategy?

MTSS is a medium term (usually three years) framework public

expenditure within which available internal and external resources are
allocated between various economic sectors. It is:
 A procedure of matching limited resources with unlimited needs of
the citizen;
 An integrated system, through which all available resources
(government, donors and lenders) are allocated on the basis of
defined policy priorities,
 Sector strategies setting out future priority spending.
 What is MTSS Contd ?

More precisely, it describes:

 how particular units or groups of units of government will deliver outputs,
 within the limitation of available resources,
 which will contribute to evidence based cross-government outcomes
 in line with the overall policy priorities.
This means at the very least that there must be
 reasonable expectations of availability of:
 enough money, and
 capacity
 What is MTSS?

MTSS, by being multi-year, gives room for the following two major
additional improvements over annual planning:
The recurrent implications of capital investments may be
recognized (e.g. if in year one of the medium-term 10 new schools
are built, the costs of providing teachers and buildings maintenance in
the two subsequent years may also be provided for; and,
 Capital programmes which may take more than one year to
complete can have their costs allocated across the years that it is
expected to take for their implementation to be completed.
 What MTSS is Not?

 An MTSS is not an annual budget neither is it an operational plan.

 It cannot be specified to the same level of detail as a budget or go to
the level of detail contained in an operational plan.
 An operational plan is normally a one year plan which identifies
particular activities under an annual budget while specifically setting out
departmental responsibilities for carrying out the work.
 An operational plan for one year can provide a considerable amount of
information about what is entailed in implementing certain kinds of
projects or programmes, which can be very useful in helping to compile
the details of the MTSS.
 MTSS in the context of policy, planning and
budgeting

Definitions of Terms: Policy, Goals, Outcome

 Policy- the basic principles by which a government is guided. Is a statement of
intent, and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. is simply about defining
expected principal Goals and Outcomes. E.g ERGP, JMPPR,
 Goal- A goal is a description of a key result over a long time frame towards
which all combined efforts are aimed. An observable and measurable end result
having one or more objectives to be achieved within a more or less fixed
timeframe. E.g SDG
 Outcome- an end result that It is a little more specific than goal . For example,
‘achieving a higher proportion of secondary school leavers with a 5 credits
including English and Mathematics at one sitting,” could be an Outcome’.
 MTSS in the context of policy, planning and
budgeting

Definitions of Terms: Strategy, Output, Input, Activities.

 Strategy- how to combine input and activities that will result in the achievement
of outputs
 Output- what is required to achieve an outcome. E.g. schools, books, desks,
qualified teachers, non –teaching personnel and administrators to
run the system.
 Inputs - things needed to create outputs. School building as an output requires
the inputs of planning, drawing, materials, labour, and equipment to
build it.
 Activities- things that have to be done in order to combine inputs to make
output.
MTSS in the context of policy, planning and budgeting: Dev. Plan Vs MTSS
S/N DEV. PLAN
1. Long Term
2. Statements of policy and
strategy which explain how
longer term service
improvement outcomes are
to be achieved
3. Contains some general
costing of initiatives
4. Accepted funding gaps
which it is hoped may be
filled from sources yet to be
Determined.
MTSS
Medium Term (Usually 3 years)
Demonstrate complete
financial viability of the
proposals contained in other
State planning documents
Completely costed and set
out definite projects and
programmes.
Specific details of sources of
finance and capacity to
implement them.
 Relationship between different plans

Outlines overall State Policy Outcomes Loosely costed if possible to

Long and Medium Term Policy Documents – State demonstrate general realism
Devt Plan

Sector Development Plan – 5 to 10 years Links policy to strategy, generally costed but may include funding
gaps

Medium Term Sector Strategy – 3 years – No funding gaps Consistent with the Sector Plan, all activities costed within projected
ceilings

Based on the first year of the most recent rolling MTSS

Annual Budget

Annual Operational Plan Defines responsibilities for implementation in relation to the budget

Quarterly projections of cash requirements against all planned

Departmental Cash Flow Projections activities
Conclusion

 In Nigeria, MTSS approaches to planning and budgeting are

still relatively new. It is therefore important to recognize that
building knowledge and experience in sector strategy making
is as much of a learning process for MEPB as it is expected to
be for other MDAs. This justify the need for continuous
training and re- training of Sector Planning Team members
on MTSS.
 Government also need to seek support from Development
Partners in the form of reform program(s) spanning more
than a period of two years to institutionalize the MTSS
approaches to planning and budgeting in the State
Thank you for listening……