Designing medium and long-term environmental and climate change programmes in line with good international practices is key to obtaining adequate resources for their implementation. Financing could come both from the regular budget process or through various national and regional donor and the climate related sources of International Financing Institutions (IFIs) . Those countries which develop the necessary skills to prepare sound public expenditure programmes and identify cost-effective projects will be more competitive and will stand better chances of benefitting from such support. In order to be successful, such programmes need to be integrated into the national development strategies and medium-term budgetary processes (such as Medium-Term Expenditure Frameworks (MTEFs). In addition, government administrations need to be willing to apply good practices in public expenditure management, such as accountability, transparency, and efficiency.

The progressive shift in aid modalities towards sectoral and general budget support has posed additional challenges to environmental authorities in the countries of Eastern Europe, Caucasus and Central Asia (EECCA) in the competition for limited public resources. In this context, the need to further develop their capacity in financial planning, budgeting and management is becoming increasingly important.

With the aim of helping increase the knowledge and practical skills of EECCA environmental administrations in better managing public environmental expenditure, the EAP Task Force work in this area has focused on two main issues:

• Designing and costing climate-related investment programmes in line with international good practices. The programming methodology and costing model, designed as part of this work, were first pilot tested in Kazakhstan.
• Development of a training course on medium-term environmental expenditure planning and management for environmental ministries in the EECCA countries.