Model project: City of Kiel develops impact-oriented municipal budgets

corsus consults the administration of the city of Kiel on the design and implementation of a model project for impact-oriented management of the municipal budgets.

Challenge:

Municipalities in Germany have a major impact on achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to which Germany and all 193 UN member states have committed. An important instrument for implementing the SDGs at the municipal level is the budget. So far, however, the budget and thus the expenditures of municipalities are rarely designed according to the impact on their citizens, the region and the environment. In the model project, the city of Kiel would like to develop sustainability goals for four policy areas – environment / climate protection, economy, school / sports and municipal development policy – in order to steer the budget in an impact-oriented way according to selected SDGs.

Approach:

Funded by the Service Agency Communities in One World (SKEW), Dr. Anke Butscher and Julius Wenzig of corsus support the model project by providing process guidance and management, technical expertise, and the design and implementation of planning and strategy workshops. For this purpose, corsus developed a framework concept and a roadmap on how the model project can be successfully implemented in the budget and designs the exchange within the concept team and with the departments.

Solution:

Together with the interdisciplinary concept team consisting of representatives from the administration of the city of Kiel, a concept was developed that defines the framework of the project and specifies a hierarchical target system, a control matrix and an indicator-based standard reporting system. Workshops with experts from the various departments were designed and conducted to structure the target system according to strategic and operational goals and underlying measures. Those responsible for the budget were involved in order to map the impact orientation at the technical level as well. The objectives of the model project are to be integrated into the 2022 budget planning cycle for the 2023 budget.