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Second Conference
of the
International Budget Project
Draft
Agenda
Background
Conference Goals
Daily Conference Draft
Agenda
Background
This was the second conference of the International Budget Project. The
conference was held in Cape Town, South Africa from February 21 to 25,
1999 and was funded by the Ford Foundation. The Institute for Democracy in
South Africa (IDASA) and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP)
of the United States planned and co-sponsored the conference.
The theme of the conference was "Transparency and Participation in the
Budget Process" for two main reasons. First, the challenges faced by civil
society in these areas are quite similar around the developing world.
Second, unless a country's budgetary process is transparent and allows for
civil participation, the ability of NGOs to undertake budget work is
severely restricted. Establishing a transparent and participatory budget
process is a high priority of the NGOs.
Conference
Goals
The goals of the conference include:
- Advancing the development of researchers and organisations involved
in applied budget analysis by exposing them to successful and new
initiatives, as well as by facilitating discussions with a range of
organisations at different levels of capacity. IDASA was featured as a
successful initiative in a challenging political environment.
- Advancing understanding and work on issues of transparency and
participation in the budget process. "Transparency" issues include the
availability of budget information to the public as well as the
establishment of decision-making processes that are subject to public
scrutiny. "Participation" means both that the budget process allows for
the direct and indirect input of researchers and the public, as well as,
more broadly, examining how researchers can play a constructive role in
the budget process. The "budget process" is used here to include the
steps by which budgets are prepared, decided upon, and executed.
- Advancing a wide range of networking activities. These include
promoting regional and issue alliances, as well as growing and nurturing
the network as a whole.
Daily
Conference Agenda 
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