ROMANIA Reimbursable Advisory Services Agreement on Strengthening Planning and Budgeting Capacity II (P168605) Output No. 2 Report on the support provided to enable the seven (7) ISPs that cover fourteen (14) public policy domains to: expand their existing IT monitoring application; upload their ISPs into the M&E tool; and expand and consolidate their respective dashboards into one (1) dashboard August 2021 Revised version September 2021 Project co-financed from the European Social Fund through the Operational Programme of Administrative Capacity for 2014-2020 Disclaimer This report is a product of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / the World Bank. The findings, the interpretation and conclusions expressed in this paper do not necessarily reflect the views of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or of the governments they represent. The World Bank does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this work. This report does not necessarily represent the position of the European Union or the Romanian Government. Copyright Statement The material in this publication is copyrighted. Copying and/or transmitting portions of this work without permission may be a violation of applicable laws. For permission to photocopy or reprint any part of this work, please send a request with the complete information to either: (i) General Secretariat of the Government (Palatul Victoria, Piața Victoriei 1, District 1, Bucharest, Romania or (ii) the World Bank Group Romania (31, Vasile Lascar Street, 6th floor, sector 2, Bucharest, Romania). This report was delivered in August 2021 and the revised version in September 2021 under the Reimbursable Advisory Services Agreement on Strengthening Planning and Budgeting Capacity II (P168605) signed on September 2, 2020 between the General Secretariat of the Government (GSG) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD). The report corresponds to Output no.2 under the above-mentioned agreement. 2 CONTENTS List of Tables ............................................................................................................................ 4 List of Figures ........................................................................................................................... 4 List of acronyms ....................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 6 1. IT monitoring application for the ISP ............................................................................... 7 2. Overview of the ISP M&E IT Tool .................................................................................. 11 Authentication .................................................................................................................... 12 Planning level page/details (Strategic objective, Program, Measure) ........................... 13 The indicator page ............................................................................................................. 14 Content editing ................................................................................................................... 15 Adding content using forms .............................................................................................. 18 3. Conclusions and recommendations .................................................................................. 20 4. Annexes ............................................................................................................................... 22 Annex # 1: ISP tool - Technical instructions ....................................................................... 22 A. Minimum system requirements ................................................................................. 22 B. Installing instructions ................................................................................................ 22 1. Installing Apache ................................................................................................... 22 2. Installing PHP ........................................................................................................ 22 3. Installing MYSQL ................................................................................................. 23 C. Website configuration ............................................................................................... 23 D. Supplied files ............................................................................................................. 24 3 List of Tables Table 1 - ISP tool instances ............................................................................................. 9 List of Figures Figure 1 - ISP structure .................................................................................................... 7 Figure 2 - ISP Dashboard ............................................................................................... 10 Figure 3 - Start page ....................................................................................................... 11 Figure 4 - Authentication screen .................................................................................... 12 Figure 5 - Start page, after login, with the user menu open ........................................... 12 Figure 6 - Planning level page ....................................................................................... 13 Figure 7 - Indicator page ................................................................................................ 14 Figure 8 - Edit a planning level...................................................................................... 15 Figure 9 - Edit an indicator ............................................................................................ 16 Figure 10 - Content history/revisions ............................................................................ 16 Figure 11 - Import feeds ................................................................................................ 17 Figure 12 - Import feed types......................................................................................... 17 Figure 13 - Import file selection .................................................................................... 17 Figure 14 - Planning level form by using templates ...................................................... 18 Figure 15 - Reports page ................................................................................................ 19 Figure 16 - Charts export options .................................................................................. 19 4 List of acronyms Managing Authority of the Operational Program AMPOCA Administrative Capacity CPM Cabinet of the Prime Minister GSG General Secretariat of the Government ISP Institutional Strategic Plan Information Technology Application for ISP Monitoring IT M&E PSI and Evaluation LM Line Ministry MoF Ministry of Finance RAS Reimbursable Advisory Services 5 Introduction This report presents the support provided to enable the seven (7) ISPs that cover fourteen (14) public policy domains to: expand their existing IT monitoring application; upload their ISPs into the M&E tool; and expand and consolidate their respective dashboards into one (1) dashboard. This report corresponds to Output no. 2 under the Reimbursable Advisory Services Agreement (RAS) on Strengthening Planning and Budgeting Capacity II (P168605). The M&E IT tool and the dashboard support the line ministries (LM) participating in the RAS Agreement for the monitoring process of the implementation of the ISPs and budgetary programs developed based on the methodology of strategic and budgetary planning. Through the ISPs, the respective institutions will operationalize their sectoral strategies and will make the connection between them and the medium-term expenditure framework as presented in the Fiscal-Budgetary Strategy. The monitoring system, based on the M&E and the dashboard IT tool, allows all the users, including the top management of ministries as well as the executive staff and government officials from the GSG and the Cabinet of the Prime Minister (CPM) to monitor the progress with the implementation of each measure in the ISPs of ministries and see the results achieved. The information regarding the progress of each ISP implementation will be updated regularly by designated specialists at the level of each ministry and the GSG. The ISP M&E application meets the requirements of the ISP development methodology, as well as of the performance measurement process: (i) it is structured on four levels, which correspond to the management levels in the ISP: strategic objective, program, measure, project / activity; (ii) accessibility to all those responsible for implementing the ISP through the application available in ministries; (iii) visibility for all existing data in the application at the level of each ministry and GSG and the Ministry of Finance (MoF) by using the dashboard. Thus, with the help of this tool, the GSG, the CPM and the MoF will be able to monitor the performance indicators established by each ministry through their respective ISP. The application is functional and usable by all ministries, beneficiaries of the two projects implemented regarding ISP development at the level central administration. The continuous functioning of the monitoring tool will be ensured by designated specialists responsible for these activities at the level of CPM, including monitoring the updating of the ministerial ISPs as well as providing the maintenance of the IT system. 6 1. IT monitoring application for the ISP 1.1 Logical development framework The ISP application was developed in order strengthen strategic planning in the Romanian central administration. The tool helps ministries to plan and monitor Objectives, Programmes, Measures and KPIs by offering a bird-eye's view on the progress that was made during the planning years. The ISP tool developed under this RAS Agreement represents an extension to another seven ministries of the previous application developed within the RAS Agreement on Strengthening Planning and Budgeting Capacity and Supporting the Introduction of Performance Budgeting and used until now by 13 ministries. The ISP IT tool is used in the process of strategic planning and performance monitoring by two main categories of users: the government, through the GSG, and the ministries and potential other institutions. The framework of the monitoring IT tool is a continuation of the structure used until now and explained further1 below. The ISP IT tool follows the format and logical structure of the Institutional Strategic Plan and will support reporting the impact, result, process, and efficiency indicators to the institution's management (see Figure 1). Figure 1 - ISP structure The ISP application has 4 levels: 1 Excerpt from Output 4 – User and Administrator Manual of ISP IT M&E tool, 2017, RAS Agreement on Strengthening Planning and Budgeting Capacity and Supporting the Introduction of Performance Budgeting (P156889) 7 - The first level is the Strategic Objectives Level with Impact Indicators; - The second level is the Program Level with Result Indicators; - The third level is the Measure Level with Output Indicators; - The fourth level is the Project or Activity Levels with Process Indicators. The logical model of the Institutional Strategic Plan follows a strategic planning structure, where inputs (resources) used in activities and projects generate products (product/process indicators), which in turn determine immediate results / outputs; the output indicators produce medium-term results with effect on a segment of the beneficiaries (outcomes), and the outcomes generate long-term impact on beneficiaries. Efficiency indicators measure the unit costs of products and outputs and substantiate the budget needed to achieve them. Beneficiaries will use this IT system to monitor strategic plans, the results being directly reported in a standard format to the GSG, the MoF, and each line ministry for their respective work. The data in the application will then provide the basis for evaluation reports at either sector or governmental level. 1.2. Technical characteristics The purpose of the application is to help ministries and civil servants to use with the planning methodology and key monitoring indicators related with their activities. Some of the main functionalities of the tool are: - hierarchical storage and color-coded classification for easier identification of planning levels; - visual reporting of progress with KPIs; - configurable reports; - ability to export data into multiple formats (jpg, png, pdf, excel, csv, etc.); - open data ready - any other application/service can consume data stored in the M&E ISP tool application (using JSON) or it can consume data (in JSON format) from other application/services (e.g. external KPI definition repositories); - granular access control based on users, roles and permissions; - direct import from Excel (via CSV files). As the needs of the central administration are in constant change, the design and development of the tool envisages a flexible platform that allows programmers and administrators to adapt to policy and institutional changes that can happen during the planning period. This means that the platform can handle multiple planning methodologies and structures. The underlaying technology behind the application is open source and it is used by all major European institutions and agencies. The technology stack is Linux, Apache, PHP and MySQL, powering a multi-instance Drupal 8 install. Each ministry has its own isolated database, while the source code core is common across all ministries, allowing us to optimize the security updates (i.e. we apply security updates for all ministries at once). Drupal is a well tested platform, used by the European Commission, European Parliament, Eurocontrol and almost all the other European institutions and governments. By choosing the open source software the application is a solution as transparent as possible, to be open and to have access to all collective knowledge that exists in this ecosystem. This 8 approach will optimize long-term operational and maintenance costs, by avoiding license costs and closed technologies that could lead to scarce and expensive updates. The IT tool allows the access of all ISPs developed by the ministries under an individual web page accessed with credentials offered by the GSG staff. The reorganization of the Government was reflected in the structure of the ISP tool by merging or dividing some instances following the principle of following the public policies under the mandate of a ministry. The structure of ISP tool, by instances (former or new ones) is presented in Table 1. Table 1 - ISP tool instances # Ministry Link to ISP tool Instance 1 Ministry of Health http://psi.gov.ro/ms Existing 2 Ministry of Education http://psi.gov.ro/men Existing 3 Ministry of Regional Development and http://psi.gov.ro/mdrap Existing Administration 4 Ministry of Internal Affairs http://psi.gov.ro/mai Existing 5 Ministry of Waters and Forests http://psi.gov.ro/map Existing 6 Ministry of Labor and Social Protection http://psi.gov.ro/mmjs Existing 7 Ministry of Finance http://psi.gov.ro/mf Existing 8 Ministry of Agriculture and Rural http://psi.gov.ro/madr Existing Development 9 Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure http://psi.gov.ro/mt Existing 10 Ministry of Research, Innovation and http://psi.gov.ro/mci Existing + Digitalization New 11 Ministry of Economy, Entrepreneurship http://psi.gov.ro/me Existing + and Tourism New 12 Ministry of Culture http://psi.gov.ro/mc New 13 Ministry of Energy http://psi.gov.ro/menrg/ New 14 Ministry of Youth and Sport http://psi.gov.ro/mts New 15 Ministry of Foreign Affairs http://psi.gov.ro/mae New 16 Ministry of Justice http://psi.gov.ro/mj New 17 General Secretariat of Government http://psi.gov.ro/dashboar Existing + d.html New At the level of the GSG and the MoF, the application allows to observe the stage of implementation of the Institutional Strategic Plan of each line ministry or institution, as a scoreboard for three 9 management levels: Institutional Strategic Plan, Strategic Objectives, Programs, respectively the ISP Dashboard (see Figure 2). Figure 2 - ISP Dashboard The instructions for installing and configuring the IT tool are presented in Annex #1 to this report. 10 2. Overview of the ISP M&E IT Tool The main steps that the ministries and other institutions responsible for monitoring and reporting activities regarding the Institutional Strategic Plans must follow in order to upload, modify, and update the progress of implementation, are presented below. Note: The screenshots presented belong to the ISP of the Ministry of Culture. All ministries have identical pages, the only differences being: - the visual/branding (logo, specific images and colours), each solution being aligned to the visual identity of each ministry; - categories: strategic plan, strategic objectives, impact indicators, program, program result, measure, projects and activities, result indicators, output indicators, product indicators. The start page In order to access the planning application, type http://psi.gov.ro/initiale_minister in a web browser and the page of the ISP appears (only for information not for editing) (Figure 3). Figure 3 -The Start page The start page offers a bird’s eye view of the planning hierarchy, showing strategic objectives, programs and measures, together with other relevant information. Here one can also filter the strategic document (ISP) by planning level type/code, title or description. 11 Authentication The authentication link can be found under the user menu, on the start page. Once the user clicks on this link, he/she can either authenticate or reset the password. New accounts are created by system administrators. The username and password are communicated to the user (Figure 4). Figure 4 - Authentication screen The start page after user login After the user logins, the start page will offer four new options/links under the user menu. Those will allow the user to import an ISP (word, excel format), add a planning level, manage the user account or logout (Figure 5). Figure 5 - Start page, after login, with the user menu open 12 Planning level page/details (Strategic objective, Program, Measure) Clicking on a planning level will show the user it’s detailed page. The structure is the same for all planning level types (Figure 6): - Coding and title of planning level; - The planning level that sits above the current one (i.e. the addressing - “parent” - level in the planning hierarchy); - Description of planning level; - Budget (if it was filled in); - Relevant indicators specific for planning level; - Planning levels that sit below the current one (i.e. the implementation mechanism - “children” - levels in the planning hierarchy) Figure 6 - Planning level page 13 The indicator page If the user clicks on an indicator name, he/she can see its detailed page with the following information (Image 5): - Coding and title of indicator; - The planning level description (that is measured by indicator: Impact, Outcome, Output); - Description, reference value and the unit of measurement; - A table with annual targets, actual recorder values for each year, comments and the percentage of target fulfilment; - A chart with the indicator progress. Figure 7 - Indicator page 14 Content editing If the user is authenticated as having editor rights, he/she can modify the content of the ISP (planning level, indicator) using the editor bar and all changes are recorded to see the edit history and compare changes using the “revision” functionality (Figures 8, 9, 10): Figure 8 - Edit a planning level 15 Figure 9 - Edit an indicator Figure 10 - Content history/revisions 16 Content import The ISP IT tool allows the user to quickly import content using CSV files (Figures 11, 12, 13), for appropriate transfer of data and for easiness use of tool. Please note that the CSV must be saved with UTF-8 encoding, semicolon as column delimiter, and quotes for texts that contains semicolons that are NOT column delimiters. Figure 11 - Import feeds Figure 12 - Import feed types Figure 13 - Import file selection 17 Adding content using forms The IT tool also allows the user to add content using templates helping thus the uniform content dissemination under the IT tool (Figure 14). Figure 14 - Planning level form by using templates 18 Reports and data export The IT tool allows the user to generate and export reports (Romanian -„rapoarte”) from sections in the main menu. The user can use the filters (on the right) in order to generate a report for a single year or for a specific period. The „CSV” button at the end of the report allows the user to export the data in CSV format or to print or save as PDF (Figure 15). Figure 15 - Reports page The application also allows the user to export indicator charts and data (Figure 16). Figure 16 - Charts export options 19 3. Conclusions and recommendations This purpose of this report is to present to the GSG and to the participating LM how to operate the strategic planning IT tool for the evaluation of the performance of the central administration. The report explains the functionalities, information needs and the prerequisites for the system to be functional. The tool is developed based on the description and functionalities of the structure of the Institutional Strategic Plans. It is expected that the tool will become mandatory for central administration beneficiaries to help them to fulfill their strategic and operational planning tasks efficiently. The tool will allow the monitoring of the achievement of objectives and results as defined through impact, outcome, output, efficiency and process indicators, as well as the monitoring of budget programs, measures, projects or activities. The tool is recommended to be used by the decision makers at each ministry and by the CPM, the GSG, the MoF, and LM. At the Government level, the tool allows tracking the ISP state of implementation for each sector of the Romanian central administration (covered by the project), as well as for other ministries or institutions that have or will prepare ISPs according to their legal obligations. The IT tool is installed in a test environment and the final version of the software will be installed in a safe environment. By agreement with the GSG and LM, the IT tool will be installed the into a separate LM infrastructure, not connected to other networks. The World Bank will not be responsible for the maintenance and improvement/updating of the software as part of the sustainability of the project. The entire source code is/will be provided to the GSG specialists. There is however a need for a clear decision for setting a team in charge with further developments. The tool is developed using open source software, available to LM. The documentation that will be provided will support the operations undergone by the LM for the functioning and maintenance of the tool. One important aspect to mention is the need for constant training/workshops to be caried out, year by year, for using the IT tool by ministries’ staff. Dedicated sessions of training in using IT tool shall be held for the institutions and due to pandemic issues and organizational aspects, already mentioned under Output 1b2 under same RAS Agreement, they were postponed. The training sessions are scheduled for a period of one day in on-line or hybrid format (on-line and face-to-face), immediately once the organization or reorganization of these institutions is completed and the teams for elaboration of the ISP are appointed. The effort to carry out the training sessions sould be supported by all parties involved in the project, considering also the special conditions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. All training sessions and meetings could take place place online, and an adapted format of the sessions and training materials (presentation, exercises, distribution by working groups, testing, feedback) has to be considered. 2Output 1b - Rport on training sessions on strategic planning methodology delivered to relevant public institutions, General Secretariat of the Government (GSG) and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) 20 The main focus of the workshops could be on practical activities, carried out on two groups of application users. In a first session one group with two teams uses the M&E ISP application, from the perspective of the ministries, by adding Measures and indicators associated with them, introducing data on progress on certain Measures, Programs, Strategic Objectives, and view alerts and notifications and respond to them. The other group of two teams uses the dashboard application to monitors progress on the ISP implementation, issues notifications and provides comments to ministries (the two teams), issuing also reports. On the second session the groups/teams exchange tasks with each other (rotation). By constantly using the tool, the application will allow LM to improve their expertise in project management and monitoring performance indicators. Equally, as ministries use the system to monitor progress on implementing the institutional plan, additional requirements and functionalities will be identified. These, together with actual functionalities provided by this tool, will serve as a basis for achieving a permanent solution for strategic planning and performance management. 21 4. Annexes Annex # 1: ISP tool - Technical instructions A. Minimum system requirements Operating system: CentOS 6.5 or any Debian based distribution (64 bit) Apache 2.4.x PHP 5.4.x MySQL 5.5.x Minimum hardware requirements for Drupal/MySQL hosting (production system) CPU: 4 Core RAM: 4 GB (8 GB) HDD: 25 GB (100 GB) Installing LAMP stack. Please use the steps bellow if you are installing from source on CentOS B. Installing instructions If you already have Apache, PHP and MySQL, please ignore this section. Installing Apache 2.4.x, PHP 5.4.x, MySQL 5.1.x (please change the path prefix if you install on a different location) 1. Installing Apache # yum install zlib-devel # yum install openssl # yum install openssl-devel # tar xvfz httpd-2.4.x.tar.gz # ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/apache --enable-so --enable-cgi--enable-info -- enable-rewrite --enable-speling--enable-usertrack --enable-deflate --enable-ssl --enable- mime-magic --with-z=/usr/lib64/ --enable-module=most --enable-headers --enable- shared=max --with-mysql=/usr/local/mysql # make # make install 2. Installing PHP PHP dependencies # yum install libxml2 # yum install libxml2-devel # yum install gd # yum install libpng-devel # yum install libjpeg-devel 22 (please change the path prefix if you install on a different location) ./configure --with-apxs2=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs --with-mysql=/usr/bin/ -with-libdir=lib64 --prefix=/usr/local/apache/php --with-config-file-path=/usr/local/apache/php --enable-force- cgi-redirect --disable-cgi --enable-mbstring --with-gd --with-jpeg-dir --with-png-dir # make # make install 3. Installing MYSQL Download http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/linux-installation-rpm.html MySQL-shared-compat, MySQL-client-community, MySQL-devel-community şi MySQL- server-community # rpm -ivh MySQL-*.rpm # rpm -ivh MySQL-*.rpm Please set a root password for the MySQL root user! To set a password please use the following commands: # /usr/bin/mysqladmin -u root password 'new-password' # /etc/init.d/mysql start C. Website configuration Note: for the next step you will need the supplied Drupal folder and an existing MySQL backup Step 1: Copy the supplied folder in Apache DocumentRoot (example /var/www/html) Step 2: Create an empty MySQL databaseand then a user will full rights (ex. GRANT ALL ON mard.* TO user@localhost IDENTIFIED BY „password“; Step 3: Restore the supplied database. Ex: mysql –u root –p mard < /path_to/mard.sql Step 4: Change the DB details in /sites/default/settings.php $databases = array ( 'default' => array ( 'default' => array ( 'database' => 'mard', 'username' => 'YOUR NEW USERNAME', 'password' => 'YOUR PASSWORD', 'host' => 'localhost', 'port' => '', 'driver' => 'mysql', 'prefix' => '', ), ), ); 23 D. Supplied files 1) .tar.gz (this is the Drupal folder) 2) .sql (MySQL backup) 24 Competence makes the difference! Project selected within the Operational Programme of Administrative Capacity, co-financed by the European Union from the European Social Fund