Mission

The International Budget Project was formed within the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities in 1997 to nurture the growth of civil society capacity to analyze and influence government budget processes, institutions and outcomes.  The IBP is interested particularly in working with those organizations that focus on the impact of the budget on poor and low-income people in developing countries or new democracies.  The overarching aim of the project is to make budget systems more responsive to the needs of society and, accordingly, to make these systems more transparent and accountable to the public.

To achieve its aims, the IBP focuses its energies on three objectives:

• The IBP works with individual civil society organizations that are developing or strengthening dedicated capacity to engage in public budgeting.

• The IBP encourages these civil society budget groups to work together and to learn from each other.

• The IBP helps to raise the profile of budget work in the international community and to promote private, public and multilateral donor investment in civil society budget work.

In all of its work, the IBP relies on a strategy to develop regional partners that are capable of leading network formation and providing technical assistance in each region, and serving as examples of effective civil society budget groups.  IBP's partners receive priority as participants in IBP training, research, and re-granting activities. 

The IBP's strongest partnerships are with the Institute for Public Finance in Croatia, the Center for Budget and Policy Studies in India, Fundar in Mexico, and the Budget Information Service at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa. 

The IBP works closely with the Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth (CIPPEC) in Argentina, the Public Finance Monitoring Center in Azerbaijan, Ibase in Brazil, the Center for Governance and Budget AccountabilitY (CBGA) in India, the Bandung Institute for Governance Studies (BIGS) in Indonesia, the Public Policy Research Center in Kazakhstan, and the Uganda Debt Network (UDN).