Environmental programmes, often requiring at least a medium-term implementation horizon, remain chronically underfunded and do not achieve their objectives partly because of budget planning that is limited to an annual cycle. The Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) approach, has been promoted as a means of providing the missing link between government policy decisions and multi-year financial planning and budgeting.

As part of the work on mainstreaming environmental and climate change adaptation programmes into public budgets, the EAP Task Force prepared a regional survey, involving ten EECCA countries into this undertaking, namely: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Representatives of both Ministries of Environment and Ministries of Finance participated in the survey.

A key objective of this survey was to analyse whether policy, legal, organisational and knowledge-related preconditions for achieving the financial sustainability of the environmental sector are in place in the participating countries. The survey was designed along the main directions of public finance management reforms in the region, reflecting, in particular, the shift towards budgets prepared within the framework of medium-term expenditure planning and sectoral and direct budget support provided by donors. To support the survey analysis, and to better understand the specific challenges facing the environmental administration in planning its expenditure, including in the medium-term, the EAP Task Force counduced a country study of Ukraine. Its main findings and conclusions are incorporated in the survey report.

The final version of the flagship report based on the survey and a comprehensive companion communication package were prepared and published for the Astana Ministerial “Environment for Europe” Conference held in September 2011 in Kazakhstan.