CSBI is a partnership of donors and civil society organizations which aims to build capacity for budget analysis in civil society organizations in selected low-income countries.  The ultimate aim of the Initiative is to improve budget transparency, good governance, and decrease poverty in the countries involved.  Assistance from CSBI most often takes the form of project support grants, coupled with technical assistance and mentoring from established budget groups around the world. 

The Initiative solicits proposals to engage established civil society groups in select low-income countries where the governance, information, and civil society environment is conducive to applied budget work, but where such work has not yet taken root.  CSBI is particularly interested in supporting organizations that aim to provide information on the impact of the budget on poor people as a core part of their strategic vision.  The Initiative also aims to capture and disseminate lessons learned by groups beginning such work in challenging environments.

CSBI is coordinated by the International Budget Project.  The Initiative is funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID), the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida), and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad).

NOTE:  CSBI is not currently accepting unsolicited project proposals.

For further information regarding CSBI, please contact the Program Coordinator, Tom Zanol (zanol@cbpp.org).

Background and Rationale

Since the late-1990s, there has been a dramatic increase in the capacity of civil society organizations to understand, analyze and influence public budgeting in developing countries.  This trend has been strongest in middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America (such as South Africa, India, Mexico and Argentina).  The overall strategic thrust of the work is to influence budget policies and outcomes by combining applied public finance research with effective dissemination and advocacy.  Groups engaging in this work also share a common commitment to inclusive and pro-poor budgeting.

Civil society budget-related work has grown much more slowly in low-income environments.  However, there are examples showing that work in low-income environments is possible, subject to a threshold of opportunity and capacity, as well as sufficient financial and technical support.  It is for this reason that CSBI has chosen to focus on nurturing civil society capacities for budget work in low-income environments.  To this end, CSBI provides a combination of financial, technical, and learning/networking support to nascent budget groups by drawing on the capacities of established budget groups around the world.

Governance

The CSBI is directed by a Steering Committee which is responsible for choosing the specific countries to engage partner organizations, and for making grant decisions to allocate support.  The Committee membership, listed below, includes representatives from among the strongest budget groups in the world, as well as the Initiative’s donors and several outside experts:

Mike Battcock
Department for International Development, DFID, UK
Zie Gariyo
Uganda Debt Network, UDN, Uganda
Helena Hofbauer
FUNDAR - Center for Research and Analysis, Mexico
Warren Krafchik
International Budget Project, IBP, US
Michael Lipsky
Demos-USA, US
Svante Persson
Swedish International Development Agency, SIDA, Sweden
John Samuel
Action Aid Asia, Thailand
Jim Shultz
Democracy Center, Bolivia
Jeff Thindwa
Participation and Civic Engagement Group, World Bank, US
Lisa Veneklasen
Just Associates, US

Project Support Provided by CSBI

• Core financial assistance grants of US $40,000 per year (for up to two years pending renewal approval) to build budget work capacity within existing civil society organizations.  Supported work is "demand-driven," based on the needs identified in project proposals submitted by grantees.

• Financial assistance is complemented by tailored technical assistance provided by experienced budget groups around the world.  Each CSBI partner is assigned an appropriate project "mentor" from the region to provide consultation and training.

• Discretionary small grants to support discrete activities or pilot projects for organizations that are not yet prepared for a core grant.

• Training and facilitation of networking among groups involved in the Initiative, as well as integration into the broader international budget network.

Eligibility for CSBI Support

To be considered for CSBI support, organizations must be part of civil society (e.g., research organizations, university departments, NGOs, women’s organizations, trade unions, etc.), be independent of political parties, and have their origin in the targeted countries. 

The selection criteria include:

• Does the organization have a clear vision of the budget work that it wishes to undertake, and of the role this work would fulfill in pursuing its organizational mission and goals?

• Does the organization have an ability to combine the capacity for solid analytic work with substantial relationships in civil society to carry that work forward?

• Is the national, regional or local climate favorable to budget work -- i.e. is there a real opportunity to have a political impact on state policies to advance the interests of poor people?

• Is the project proposed well conceived, realistic, and does it address in a direct way budget and/or revenue issues?

Learning From CSBI Partners

Learning about how to support and undertake budget work in challenging environments is an integral part of CSBI.  To this end, the Initiative engages in activities to methodically and strategically learn from the selected projects.  Learning "capture" takes the form of training, networking opportunities, case studies and best practices guides that will be disseminated widely to guide donor and civil society work in poor countries.

To facilitate networking and cross-sharing among partner groups, CSBI convened the first annual training and exchange workshop for staff from all current CSBI-supported projects in December of 2005. The workshop was held in Uganda, and hosted by the Uganda Debt Network (UDN).  Participants shared case studies of their progress, engaged in discussion of common challenges, and participated in a site visit to UDN field offices.  Training for all groups was provided by members of the Steering Committee, and focused on subjects such as:  sector-specific budget analysis; coalition building; strategies for advocacy, and; working with media.  All workshop presentations are available in PowerPoint format here.

Countries

CSBI has supported the following organizations and projects.

Indonesia:  Bandung Institute for Governance Studies (BIGS) [website in Bahasa Indonesia]

Project: "Designing and Advocating for a Participatory Budgeting Process in Bandung City"

Selected for support in 2004, with renewal in 2005.

Background:  BIGS is a research and advocacy institution created in 1999 and dedicated to:  inclusive and transparent local government budgets; public service accountability, and; local institutional development.  Their current budget activities include research, training, and dissemination of reports, a resource library, web page, and monthly bulletin (Bujet).  The organization’s activities are deeply grounded in collaborative and participatory methodologies.

Proposed Work:  BIGS aims to develop participatory budgeting in Bandung City by conducting a public awareness campaign, training of civic organizations and citizens, researching best practices, and drafting appropriate legislation.  Out of this process, they proposed to create a people’s forum to advocate for changes to legislative bylaws and to expand political space for participatory budgeting in Bandung City.

Progress:  Project activities in the first year focused on developing a conceptual framework, information and understanding of participatory budgeting at the local government level, as well as on initiating efforts to institutionalize a participatory budget process in the Bandung local government.  Activities included the provision of several training workshops for journalists, NGO activists and citizens, as well as for public officials and legislators in Bandung.  The first set of workshops focused on the 2005 budget and were held during the legislature’s debating period.  The second set of workshops focused on opportunities for citizen involvement in the budget process.  In addition to training, BIGS has intensively used its regular newsletter and website to communicate with its growing budget participation network.  During the period of CSBI support, BIGS has also been instrumental in the formulation of a participatory budget framework and has drafted a local regulation (bylaw) on participatory budgeting. 

Challenges:  Participatory budgeting is a very new concept at the local government level in Indonesia.  BIGS has therefore had to work on several fronts simultaneously. Introducing citizens, legislatures and journalists to the possibility of budget advocacy has been important, but finding and empowering allies within the government has been equally important. The most intractable (and underestimated) obstacle that BIGS has encountered has been access to data on Indonesia's budget process (which is treated as a state secret). As a result, BIGS is now partnering with the NGO coalition advocating for the enactment of a freedom of information act. By extension, BIGS has also had to work to devise a suitable political incentive for politicians and government officials in an effort to overcome resistance within government to participatory budgeting.

Current Plans:  During 2006, BIGS aims to build on their initial efforts by strengthening the effective public demand for participatory budgeting.

• BIGS believes that the missing component in their promotion efforts is effective, broad-based advocacy. They will therefore be targeting 2000 key people among local NGOs, academics, youth and religious organizations, professional associations and journalists to assist in this task.

• Various forms of media will be developed and utilized, including the publication of a monthly bulletin and a radio talk show, both of which aim to link budget transparency and social, economic and cultural rights.

• BIGS will also undertake the formation of stake-holder alliances and networks for the promotion of participatory budget work.

• They propose measuring the impact of these activities by the degree of participation in its activities, subscribers to the monthly publication, feedback from the radio program, as well as the cumulative "noise" that is created by the growing network on budget transparency.

Burkina Faso:  Centre pour la Gouvernance Démocratique (CGD) Center for Democratic Governance 

Project:  Identification of opportunities, actors and capacity building for increasing participation of civil society in the budget process.

Selected for support in 2004, with renewal in 2005.

Background:  CGD was formed in 2000 to analyze and influence governance development in Burkina Faso.

Proposed Work:  This project represents the first budget work in Burkina Faso and is focused on identifying and securing opportunities for greater budget transparency and civil society involvement in the budget process and PRSP monitoring.

Progress:  Prior to initiating the project, CGD convened a reference group drawn from the NGO and policy communities.  With support from this reference group, the project's initial focus was on five major activities:

• A critical analysis of the State’s draft budget for fiscal year 2004-2005 – the findings of which were presented at a public press conference in September 2004.

• The design of a training module on budget transparency, budget-related analytical tools, and advocacy.

• Provision of training in 7 municipalities.

• The design and implementation of a benchmark survey on budget transparency at municipal/commune level, completed in June 2005.

• Broader dissemination of information through print and radio.

Challenges:  The major difficulties encountered in the project’s first year were in identifying and selecting participants who would benefit from the training, and that were both willing and able to engage in budgetary issues in the long term.  In the first phases of the training, several participants were selected that either did not benefit from the training, or did not have the capacity to impart the knowledge gained to their respective organizations.  

Current Plans:  During 2006, CGD proposes expanding their training to include municipal budget officials and civil servants.  Pending municipal elections in early 2006 would create an opportunity to reach the new cadre of local elected officials, and build relationships between them and CSOs which have already received training.  The next phase of work therefore focuses on building a democratic dialogue between CSOs and the state.  Another major shift will concern efforts to expand dissemination and advocacy.  Several popular publications, briefs to journalists and government, and radio will be used to reach non-urban CSOs.

Specific 2006 activities include:

• Training workshops on budgeting and participatory approaches targeted at newly elected local officials.

• Analysis of the 2006 draft state budget focusing on social expenditures, revenues, special inequalities, and the agricultural sector.

• Production and wide dissemination of several popular publications, including a brochure and guide to the 2006 budget, radio broadcasts in local languages, and roundtable discussion groups.

• Advocacy with government, parliament, Court of Auditors and Association of Municipalities on selected analytical findings.  To strengthen advocacy, the composition of the reference group will also be adjusted to include members of the legislature Commission on Budget, and wider civil society groups (including representation from the agricultural and HIV/AIDS communities).

Malawi:  Civil Society Coalition for Quality Basic Education (CSCQBE)

Project:  Community monitoring of education expenditure in the Malawi PRSP

Selected for support in 2004, with renewal in 2005.

Background:  The Coalition was formed in 2000 and is comprised of 46 CSOs committed to the right to quality basic education in Malawi. Activities include national budget monitoring, research, capacity building, advocacy on key education issues, and community mobilization.

Proposed Work:  The project aimed to establish a community-led expenditure monitoring and analysis process by increasing the capacity of CSOs to analyze and influence national and sub-national education budgets. Given the paucity of data in Malawi, the CSCQBE proposed training community member groups to conduct data collection and analysis themselves, and to use this evidence in district and local level education sector advocacy. The project is designed to monitor the commitment of the Malawi government, as stated in the PRSP, to ensure that sufficient resources are allocated to priority areas in the education sector and that these resources reach the intended beneficiaries.

Progress:  Much of the first year was engaged in planning activities, with a delayed start for the work plan due to the Coalition not having completed the government registration process for NGOs.  A Budget Monitoring Subcommittee was formed and met in January to plan the first of two monitoring surveys, as well as to train members of the Coalition's 10 District Networks to conduct the surveys. The training workshop took place in April 2005 where participants agreed to conduct a one-month budget monitoring exercise in the field between May and June 2005. Data gathered in the first survey was analyzed and disseminated in August 2005. A second survey began in October for the first half of the next budget year, with analysis and dissemination activities in November and December.

To discuss concerns with access and quality of education which arose from the findings of their expenditure tracking survey, CSCQBE organized meetings in April with MPs on the Education Committee and with donors in Malawi. The survey's findings raised critical issues for consideration in the 2005/6 budget framing process. The Coalition completed a position paper on deficiencies in the 2005/6 education budget and its implementation, which was presented by a large group of CSOs to the Minister of Finance in May before the budget was presented in Parliament in July.

Challenges:  A major challenge has been the dilemma of building core analytical capacity within the small secretariat of a large coalition, while much of the field survey work is conducted by coalition members who require training and supervision.  Also, preoccupation of Coalition member organizations with other activities forced postponement of some monitoring activities.  Another difficulty has been coordination with broader civil society networks in Malawi.

Current Plans:  CSCQBE proposed the following activities for 2006:

• Designing strategy and tools for budget monitoring advocacy and media attention.

• Conducting a comprehensive Budget Monitoring Data collection Exercise for the 2005/6 financial year following the approval of the year's budget

• Analysis of budget monitoring data and production of a report.

• Report dissemination and Advocacy

• Conducting a mini budget monitoring survey for the first quarter of the 2006/7 budget after it is approved by parliament in June/July 2006, and dissemination of the results.

Bolivia: Joint project submission by:

Centro de Estudios para el Desarrollo Laboral y Agrario (CEDLA) Center for Labor and Agriculture Development Studies
Centro de Estudios Superiores Universitarios (CESU) Center for Higher Education, and La Coordinadora de la Mujer The Coodinator of Women

Project:  Revenue accountability: State, public finance and hydrocarbon revenues

Selected for support in 2004, with renewal in 2005.

Background:  CEDLA is a research center founded in 1985 which analyzes economic policies related to rural and urban workers. CESU is a university-based research center founded in 1992 with a focus on gender, social, and environmental development. Coordinadora de la Mujer is a network of national, state and local organizations dedicated to gender equity, especially in public policy.  Their partnership brings together strong analytical capacity, CSO and labor networks, and access to both Congress and the media. 

Proposed Work:  CESU, CEDLA and La Coordinadora established the project as a joint effort to promote more active citizen participation in the formulation, execution, and evaluation of the national budget, with a particular focus on revenues from the country’s oil and gas sector.  The  specific objectives were to: strengthen the research skills of civil society groups working on public finance issues; expand and strengthen links between those researchers and organizations; generate strategic research; and produce a dissemination campaign to put that research into the hands of civil society groups and the mass media.

Progress:  In the first year, the project made significant advancement in three main areas.

• Investigative Teams:  In Cochabamba, CESU formed a team including both senior academics and six student investigators to take on the labor-intensive work of reviewing and tabulating revenue data and analyzing government/industry contracts and other source documents.  In La Paz, CEDLA organized a similar team from among its staff, to review and analyze national budget documents and corporate information.

• Initial Research:  The teams divided up their research to focus on two of Bolivia’s major players in oil and gas sector.  CESU undertook a major project looking at public revenues from a Shell/Enron/ Petrobras subsidiary (Transredes).  CEDLA undertook a similar study relating to the Spanish oil giant, Repsol, as well as ongoing analysis related to the current Bolivian national budget.

• Outreach to civil society and national political actors:  Throughout the research process both teams used their information to educate and brief the groups most engaged in the country's heated debate over oil and gas revenues.  This included La Coordinadora del Gas (a broad civil society coalition that has been calling for national recovery of mineral resources), members of the Bolivian Congress, union leaders, and indigenous organizations. 

Challenges:  The project has faced significant obstacles, both in terms of access to information and the need to build up the knowledge base of its researchers.  Given the technical issues involved, research products must first be translated into popular and accessible forms, then strategically inserted into policy debates through outreach efforts. 

Current Plans:  In 2006 the three groups aim to deepen the analytical work begun in the first year, but with more coordination between the groups and a special emphasis on getting their information into public hands through training and public education.  Specific activities planned include:

• Deepening and completing the case studies of the Transredes and Repsol activities.

• Carrying out a series of workshops and educational forums for a wide variety of Bolivian civil society organizations.

• Media outreach, both in Bolivia and internationally, using the results of the project's research.

• Holding a specialized workshop for CESU's and CEDLA's investigative teams with an outside specialist in oil industry accounting practices.

• Development of a proposal for reform of public finance and the oil and gas sector to serve as a base for future political and government deliberations.

Honduras:  Foro Social para la Deuda Externa de Honduras (FOSDEH) Social Forum for the External Debt of Honduras

Project:  Citizen's budget analysis and advocacy directed at national Poverty Investment Fund

Selected for support in 2004.

Background:  FOSDEH, formed in 1995, is an established national alliance of NGOs specializing in monitoring public policies on the macro-economy, external debt and development.  Their activities include citizen monitoring, research, training, advocacy and dissemination, and organizational capacity building.

Proposed Work:  As part of the Honduran PRSP consultation council, FOSDEH sought to increase the analytical base of civil society members on the council.  The project aimed to focus on the 30% of the national budget reserved for poverty investment spending.  Proposed analyses of past and current poverty budgets would determine their congruence with PRSP guidelines; this information would feed directly into the multi-stakeholder PRSP Advisory Board. The results of the analyses were also to be used to train civil society members around the country in monitoring, analysis and advocacy. The final phase of the project was to conduct an outreach and advocacy process to ensure that citizen's demands for the 2005 budget are taken into consideration.

Chad: Groupe de Recherches Alternatives et de Monitoring du projet Pétrole Tchad-Cameroun (GRAMP-TC)  Group for Alternative Research and Monitoring of the Chad-Cameroon Petroleum Project

Project:  Capacity building in Chadian civil society for monitoring and transparent management of petroleum revenue

Selected for support in 2005.

Background:  GRAMP-TC was established in 2001 to build the capacity of civil society to monitor the impact of the Chad-Cameroon pipeline on transparency, accountability and poverty in Chad.  Its goals include: conducting research and monitoring of the socio-economic, legal and environmental aspects of oil revenues, creating a database for decision-makers, and providing advice and technical support to stakeholders in the process.  The organization has completed several pieces of research to date focusing on the pipeline, but has yet to seriously focus on the budgetary issues.

Proposed Work:  The proposed project is designed to build civil society interventions in the budget process through the following activities:

• Collating and analyzing information on oil revenues flows.

• Building a regionally-based team to assist with data collection, processing and analysis.

• Design and production of popular guides on reading and collecting information on the budget.

• Training workshops for civil society members of the Observatory watchdog group.

• Dissemination: Production and distribution of 12 issues of journal, 2 monitoring and analysis reports, website materials and public meetings.

• Advocacy and lobbying through a meeting of civil society and government personnel.

Guatemala:  Centro Internacional para Investigaciones en Derechos Humanos (CIIDH)  International Center for Human Rights Research

Project:  National Budget Monitoring -- Tool for strengthening democracy, respect for human rights and the promotion of transparency in public management

Selected for support in 2005.

Background:  CIIDH was founded in 1993 with the objective of promoting and defending human rights in Guatemala.  It has experience in monitoring military budgets, but has primarily focused on issues of researching and advocating for first and second generation rights.  Their 2003 – 2005 strategic plan includes strengthening institutional capacities to monitor government spending against ESC rights commitments, and building the capacity of several urban and rural coalitions, movements, and networks to do the same. 

Proposed Work:  CIIDH seeks to monitor and better align government expenditure with the government's commitment to ESC rights; and improve budget transparency and public management.  "We are proposing the promotion and defense of ESC rights and transparency in public management, within compliance with the Peace agreements, through monitoring and control of the national budget."

CIIDH sees itself as the primary institution to support civil society's understanding and involvement in public expenditure management.  To do this it plans several activities:

• Technical analysis and monitoring.

• Sensitization, information provision and training to civil society, especially grassroots organizations, and the media.  They have a particularly well-developed dissemination plan.

• Developing legislative proposals to contribute to better transparency and improved formulation and execution of the budget. 

Mozambique:  Grupo Moçambicano da Dívida (GMD) Mozambique Debt Group

Project:  Expanding civil society participation and advocacy in the public budget process

Preliminary proposal received.

Background:  GMD was created in 1996 as a national civil society coalition to promote discussion and implementation of equitable development policies.  Their aim is to eradicate absolute poverty through good governance, transparency, and sustainable management of public resources and foreign debt.  Activities include technical analyses to produce information and trainings to mobilize members and promote economic literacy.  GMD's participation in the PRSP process has served as a platform for members' demands to Government for increased transparency and creation of space for institutionalized participation through the Poverty Observatory.  Previous budget studies have focused on allocation of anti-poverty funds, children's budgets, gender and development, agrarian development, deficits and public debt, and general training materials on the state budget.

Proposed Work:  GMD seeks to increase public participation to make the state budget a "development budget", based on the needs of the people and reflective of priorities defined in the PRSP agenda.  This will require critical and normative analyses of budget proposals on both the income and expenditure sides, and the creation of feedback mechanisms for advocacy efforts.  Three main activities will be pursued:

• Production of critical position documents on state budget plans, relying on data gathering and analysis of political intent, to strengthen Civil Society capacity for involvement.

• Development of public participation through a series of three strategically timed CSO meetings to critique each phase of the budget cycle and debate with government using analyses produced.

• Promotion of economic and public finance literacy of the masses through training seminars to provide basic tools for understanding the budget and advocacy opportunities.

Ethiopia:  Poverty Action Network of civil society in Ethiopia (PANE)

Pilot Project:  Initial budget analysis training and strategy workshop for Ethiopian civil society

Training support grant provided in 2006.

Background:  In 2001, a group of NGOs in Ethiopia came together around opportunities for participation provided by the first PRSP in Ethiopia.  In an effort to ensure wider and more sustained commitment, this taskforce transformed into a network in 2004. PANE currently has over 70 members working in a range of sectors such as water, education, HIV/AIDS and gender issues.  The mission of PANE is to empower citizens to enable their active participation in policy design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation in order to bring the voices of the poor to decision makers and to make civil society, government and donors more accountable to the poor.

Proposed Work:  PANE's members have demonstrated increasing interest in engaging in advocacy around the budget, due to its pivotal role in policy implementation. The recently decentralized budget system in Ethiopia also provides increased opportunities for engaging with budgets at the community or district levels. Some network members are already engaging in this area with plans to implement budget studies in their various sectors over the coming year.  As a network of organizations, PANE hopes to eventually provide coordination of the budget work and build the capacity of its members, with the aims of ensuring a coordinated voice and maximum impact for budget work in Ethiopia.

As a first step towards developing capacity for effective budget analysis, PANE proposed a training workshop for network members to enable them to design and conduct budget tracking studies in their sectors of interest.  Additional goals of the training are to increase both public participation in the budget process and social accountability of government at different levels, as well as to enhance budget literacy in Ethiopia.

Progress:  This training workshop for civil society was conducted in Addis Ababa between 17 and 19 April, 2006, and was presented by staff from the Africa Budget Project of Idasa, and from the Uganda Debt Network.  Sixteen organizations attended, representing a range of civil society organizations including research bodies, grassroots NGOs and a gender network. The workshop covered theories around open budgets, techniques for budget analysis, links to the PRSP and community budget monitoring. A representative from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development of the Ethiopian Government also gave a comprehensive overview of the Ethiopian budget process. Commitments were made by attendees to discuss within their organizations the issues raised and to provide a concept note to PANE outlining their plans. A follow-up meeting will discuss the concept notes and identify areas where work can be jointly developed. As most of PANE's members are working on sector-specific issues, the PANE secretariat will seek to provide analysis of the national budget.

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