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Below is a list of the the organizations represented at the workshop in alphabetical order. The contact names given are the individuals attending the workshop, with photographs where available. Where possible links are given to relevant web pages, or where possible links are downloaded and are available without Internet access. Look also at the index to see the papers presented and contributed by the participating individuals and organizations. ActionAid Nepal has supported the citizen’s poverty watch forum since its formation 2 years ago, inspired by a visit and presentations by MD Mistry.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) has been increasingly focusing on poverty reduction, now looking at governments’ budgets to see how they are geared to poverty reduction. This workshop provides a good opportunity to learn about alternative approaches to budgeting and the potential role for civil society.
Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) works in economic research and policy advocacy and has been undertaking budget work for the past five years with a focus on participation and poverty. Within Bangladesh the budget process is highly centralised and access to information is lacking, although NGOs and local government are collaborating for change and simplification of the budget.
Centre for Enquiry into Health and Allied Themes (CEHAT), India is a Mumbai- based NGO conducting research on health and related themes and providing health services to the poor and disadvantaged. The organization lays special emphasis on documentation and dissemination of information on health and social sectors. Studies have included:
and the Centre runs health information databases focusing on quality of care, regulation and accountability and accreditation of hospitals.
Centre for Budget and Policy Studies (CBPS), India has been conducting local budget analysis and decentralization for the last 3 years, assessing the devolution of budgetary finances to local self governance in Karnataka and trying to understand changes after constitutional amendments in India promoting self governance. Have undertaken sectoral studies in education and health and the work is well accepted in government. Although lack of data and expertise compounded by language issues and heavy bureaucracy hampers this work, the decentralization process has made local government a reality.
Centre for Economic Research and Graduate Education, Czech Republic.
Centre for Research and Teaching in Economics (CIDE) Mexico. With 15 full time professors working on budget issues, the Centre has been undertaking research, training and dissemination on the areas of fiscal decentralization, budget impact, transparency and tax issues for the past three years.
Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP), USA works on fiscal analysis and advocacy on behalf of low income families in Texas and has been involved in budget work for 15 years, expanding in focus from health care programs to a broader set of issues including welfare reform, nutrition, workforce development and education. In this work they come up against a lack of understanding and interest in revenue and tax issues at the grassroots level, but partly because of this lack of interest, the Center’s point of view is often actively sought by the media.
Centre for Policy Research and Alternatives (CPRA), Sri Lanka works to influence public policy debates through legal, media and political means, with a separate section undertaking public opinion polls. This work does not include systematic budget analysis but occasionally demands public comment on the budget through personal contacts in the legislative and media.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), USA has been undertaking state and national level budget analysis in the US since the 1980s, and now hosts the International Budget Project.
Ellen Nissenbaum
Liz McNichol
Michelle Bazie
CIDADE, Brazil is an NGO working for the empowerment of grassroots movements with research on urban reform policies and local budget processes. CIDADE has worked on participatory budgeting in Porto Alegre since 1994 to empower people to participate and have a level of discussion that allows them to talk equal to equal with government people. People in 16 regions of the city decide what to do with the city budget; CIDADE provides them with information on the budget and public policies. This work comes across a conservative reaction from those who wish to keep the budget elitist, and local budgets suffer from concentration of tax collection and freezing of transfers to cities and states. However, participation is based on a strong tradition of active popular organizations and the election of many state and local governments linked to popular participation.
Citizen’s Poverty Watch Forum (CPWF), Nepal exists to bring policy issues into public debate and create the environment to analyze and influence anti-poverty programmes and policies. Budget analysis is a natural part of this work and attending this conference is part of the preparation for initiating this work. The Forum is seeking financial and technical support to introduce budget analysis, and anticipate some advantages to introducing budget work in civil society in Nepal. Although the awareness of the importance of the budget is not highly developed among social organizations and parliament, this also provides an opportunity as the demand for the work is high. The work will also benefit from the availability of data and budget documents in the country.
Civil Initiative Support Centre (PSKOV), Russia aims to promote civil society institutions’ development in Pskov region in NW Russia and abroad, including public participation, work with authorities and grassroots NGO support. Have been undertaking budget work for three years, although a lack of tradition in working on budget issues from outside the political elite means access to government information is difficult, but the population is highly educated and communications networks are highly developed.
Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS), India is pursuing economic equity and social justice within and across borders with value for people as the underlying theme, through advocacy, research and networking. Budget work has been a part of this for the last 2 years, although this is hindered by the difficulties in getting information at the right time and convincing officials about the importance of the work, but there is wide popular interest within civil society and at grassroots.
The Democracy Center, Bolivia works on advocacy development, governance and globalization issues. The budget element of the work began with the foundation of the California Budget Project in 1993. The Center is about to publish a democracy owners manual including chapters on tax and budget analysis.
Development Initiatives for Social and Human Action (DISHA), India. With 9 years of budget analysis experience, DISHA works mainly with laborers on rights issues. Budget analysis became necessary in order to be effective advocates and activists: as Mistry said: “unless we know about the finances of the state we can’t make much headway, they say they have no money so that forces us to look at the budget process, quality of spending, where money comes from”.
Elimu Campaign for the Right to Education is an international network of organizations campaigning for free and compulsory education of equal quality for all. The campaign is based on national networks and coalitions working to influence public policy in areas that directly or indirectly affect poor people’s right to education. A range of tools and tactics are being used including participatory budgeting, expenditure tracking and monitoring outputs and outcomes, although the budget analysis aspect is in early stages. Most of the national coalitions involved in the campaign are encountering constraints to budget work including lack of access to information, weak parliamentary scrutiny of budgets, overworked ministries having to concentrate on accountability to donors rather than citizens and lack of economic literacy among civil society. However, opportunities have been enhanced through existing participatory methodologies such as PRA and REFLECT and new spaces for civil society engagement in policy decisions, such as decentralization reforms and PRSPs.
Equidad de Género (Gender Equity), Mexico, is an advocacy organization, aiming to strengthen the capacities of women leaders to participate in decision making processes. The NGO has a separate budget unit, based on the understanding that "we need to study the budget for stronger advocacy.” The unit undertakes budget analysis from a gender perspective, looking at the amount going to women, especially poverty and reproductive work. As well as research and advocacy strategies, the work includes training in budget analysis for women.
Fair Share, South Africa is an NGO working on budget analysis, particularly at local government level, and citizen’s participation in budget processes.
Ford Foundation India were sponsors of the Conference, and the Foundation fund civil society budget work around the world. Many of the country offices were represented:
Ford Foundation New York office, USA
Beijing Office, China
Moscow Office, Russia Rio Office, Brazil
Jakarta Office, Indonesia Mexico Office Manuel Flores Montes
FITRA (Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency), Indonesia has been undertaking analysis and advocacy around budget issues since October 1999. Though the budget process is very elitist and the documentation inaccessible, the country is in transition and opportunities are beginning to open up. People in Indonesia are not aware of their rights regarding the budget, although this too is changing.
Fundar, Center for Analysis and Research, Mexico, was founded on the basis of research on budgets, ongoing since 1996, focusing on corruption and discretionality, in order to contribute solid research to citizen action for democratization in Mexico. They have been working with different citizen groups and representatives on different budget related issues.
HAQ: Centre For Child Rights(HAQ)
Instituto Brasileiro de Analises Sociais e Economicos (IBASE), Brazil, focuses on improving democratic processes and the participation of civil society in decision making process through promotion of values of transparency, opportunity, diversity and equality. IBASE works with civil society organizations and movements as well as governmental bodies to promote strategic reflection through research, communication and public debate. The Institute has been undertaking budget work since 1991, analyzing local budgets, lobbying for the budget bill and monitoring budget expenditures. This work has been taken further by the development of training on budget analysis for social movements and local government officials and building a database of Rio’s budget information to allow people access to budget data over the Internet.
Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) has a Budget Information Service, undertaking analysis of the budget across and between provinces looking at the impact on poverty, specifically the social sectors, women and children and the disabled. The Service also conducts research on the budget system, public sector reform, and monitors legislation related to the budget. Research is disseminated through a series of books, briefs and electronic media as well as training and conferences.
Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF), Indonesia, aims to promote a more democratic debate for economic development, providing alternative public policy choices through applied research in economics and finance. The problems lie in the lack of availability of budget documentation and the limitation of networks and personnel on budget analysis and advocacy capacity. However, the opportunity exists to capitalize on the spirit of more transparency towards good governance.
Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Kenya acts as a knowledge broker, seeking to promote open, active and informed debate on public policy issues focusing on the legal, fiscal constitutional and economic context for development. The work includes providing alternative public policy choices through applied research, promote public awareness and professional capacity on public policy issues. The Institute works with civil society to encourage input into the budget process through public hearings and with the legislature to provide and develop capacity for budget analysis. There is a lot of new interest by groups in civil society and private sector in the work.
Instituto de Estudos Socioeconomicos (INESC), Brazil, has been studying socio-economic issues since 1979, with the aim of strengthening and promoting truly representative, pluralistic democracy in Brazil. The Institute monitors legislation and formulates alternative proposals based on research and collaboration with other NGOs. Although the work is grounded in the Brazilian context, this is increasingly linked to international actions and policy. A major focus of the Institute is federal government expenditure, particularly on social programmes, monitoring policy and implementation through the federal budget and external loans and more recently the role of federal development banks. The work includes undertaking studies on the budget process and sharing the methodology for monitoring the budget with other NGOs to increase the scope of the work.
Institute for Policy and Community Development Studies (IPCDS), Indonesia.
Institute for Popular Democracy (IPD), Philippines, belongs to a consortium of NGOs participating in the reform of the local government code and work on national and local level budget analysis, fiscal policy, tax administration, macroeconomic analysis, privatization, decentralization theory and service delivery.
Institute of Public Finance (IJF), Croatia undertakes research into all aspects of public sector economics, in particular the funding of public services, budget policy and the role of the state. Major studies have been undertaken on issues including:
Research is published and presented at workshops and conferences, to audiences including the Ministry of Finance. The Croatian budget system lacks transparency, data is not consistent nor consolidated at all levels of government, and a lot remains to be done in the area of budget analysis and advocacy.
Integrated Social Development Centre (ISODEC), Ghana, works for social development through research, advocacy, public information and direct programme work in education, water, public law and other key sectors. The Centre For Public Interest Law uses their expertise in human rights and law to protect public interest, in particular providing legal aid for cases of abuse of human rights. Budget analysis is an integral part of the people-centered advocacy of the Centre, and is to be consolidated in a budget center early 2001. ISODEC has facilitated and co-organized several workshops in the West Africa region on civil society and the public budget. CEPIL is just beginning a research and advocacy programme on the relationship between budgets and human rights. The main constraint to this work is the lack of availability of information on how budgetary allocations are utilized. However, increasing awareness of civil society organizations of the importance of the budget has facilitated mobilization.
International Budget Project(IBP), set up in 1997, is hosted by the US based Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and funded by the Ford Foundation. The focus is facilitating sharing and learning around budget work in various contexts, developing new methodologies and conducting research.
Warren Krafchik
National Centre for Advocacy Studies (NCAS), India works on people-centered advocacy issues, has a long experience in budget analysis and is co-ordinating body in People’s BIAS.
National Democratic Institute, Namibia
Oregon Center for Public Policy (OCPP), USA works on the state level budget on tax analysis and economic analysis of public benefits, tax policy and hunger issues. Chuck has been working on budget issues as a legal aid attorney, lobbyist and through OCPP since 1997.
People’s Budgetary Information and Analysis Service (People’s BIAS), India is a network of Indian civil society and community organizations working on budget issues with a bias towards the rights and survival of the most marginalized an voiceless sections of society. It is a collective effort promoted by a number of social change resource centers and grassroots organizations in different parts of India.
Planning Commission, India. Rohini is adviser for rural development working on issues of poverty alleviation in rural India, co-ordinating work relating to decentralization and national and state human development reports. Involved in sectoral allocations which go towards budget making at central level. The work is impeded by lack of devolution of funds to elected local bodies, despite constitutional mandate. However, several NGOs and researchers are now working on decentralized budget making at district and sub-district levels. This will increase awareness and hopefully pressure from below to make budgets more pro-poor and people-centered.
Public Administration Research Centre (PARC), Egypt has chosen the theme of financial management and the budget as a policy and governance issue, looking at the Egyptian budget: who is setting the agenda, how it can be influenced, and its impact. The Centre has also arranged trainings for the media and NGOs. Professor Gomaa from the group became interested in budget work after attending the IBP Harare workshop, she said “I got interested to such an extent that now I am thinking about the budget day and night.”
Public Affairs Centre (PAC), India is an NGO undertaking a mix of advocacy and research on governance, in particular the quality of public services in municipalities of India since 1995. "We believe that research should not be left at the report stage but should move forward to do something with it.” Budget analysis work came from work exploring the relationship between performance of public services and resource mobilization and allocation of resources and includes survey work.
Redd Barna – Save the Children Norway, Mozambique has been undertaking a targeted analysis project looking at the impact of the budget on children. Almost 2/3rds of the population of Mozambique are poor and 75% of these are children. The first phase of the children’s budget project, consisting of collection of budget data from government and donors is just being completed now. However, the collection of data is impeded by the lack of transparency of the government institutions. Furthermore, people do not understand that they are party to political decisions and can influence decision makers. Civil society is not sufficiently experienced to undertake the work and need support and capacity from other network members.
Save the Children Sweden (Radda Barnen) is conducting budget studies in seven countries which will be completed shortly, linking the state of children and their rights to state expenditure. Sweden itself enjoys a transparent budget process, with readily available, disaggregated information and open, responsive politicians.
Strategy Centre, Russia moderates the relationship between NGOs and the local and regional level governments and in particular work on analysis and participation in the city budget in St Petersburg. Budget work is hampered in Russia due to corruption and the lack of understanding of the political elite of their responsibility to civil society, which itself is weak.
Tamilnadu Social Development Monitor (TSDM), India have been undertaking budget analysis for five years, as part of their public policy monitoring and advocacy in social development. The forum was started in 1995 and has been involved since then in developing a Tamil Nadu people’s manifesto which has been tested at elections, budget analysis, training and lobbying and social development report for the state. Problems include lack of access to information, lack of resources and exchange, although People’s BIAS helps with networking and sharing experiences in India and abroad.
Tanzanian Gender Networking Programme (TGNP) has been working to facilitating the process of gender equality, equity and women’s empowerment at different levels of society, since 1993. Through gender analysis, training, information, lobbying and network building, TGNP aims to make social transformation at all levels, and the budget is one of the many projects through which the Programme is mainstreaming gender issues. The Gender Budget Initiative was launched in 1997, focusing on macro economic policies and planning with a stress o budgets and budgetary processes, and the impact on different categories of the population. Research covered four key ministries and sectors, the Planning Commission and Ministries of Finance, Health and Education. The study aimed to unpack these sectors and identify gender gaps in the planning and budgeting processes, and the impact at micro level of these gaps.
Uganda Debt Network (UDN) works on external debt, lobbying for cancellation and monitoring freed funds dedicated to poverty alleviation.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), USA has, with UNIFEM, been involved in budget work for the last 4-5 years beginning with the 20/20 initiative and support to basic social services. More recently, along with UNIFEM, UNDP has been doing advocacy and providing support for pro-poor and gender sensitive budgeting initiatives. At the global level, UNDP has been doing advocacy around issues related to financing for development and at the local and national levels it is beginning to provide support to governments and working with civil societies around budgetary issues. We are in the process of setting up resource networks and focusing more on country-level support activities.
Universidad del Pacífico, Peru has been involved in a cross-country research project on transparency, focusing on gender, youth, environment and defense since 1999. Due to information constraints in doing this work, the department will set up a database on the topics mentioned above.
University of Texas, USA. Natasha is carrying out independent research on engendering the budget, with previous experience of research in participatory budgeting practices in the US and Brazil. Brian recently completed a primer on participatory budgeting.
UU Holdeen, India Fund, USA provides support to dalit, tribal, women’s organizations to advance their rights and build and control their own resources and institutions, and has supported budget initiatives in India for 7 years through partners such as DISHA, Centre for Budget Studies and NCAS.
Vidhayak Sansad/ Centre for Budget Studies, India have been involved in undertaking trend analyses of the Maharashtra State budget and public sector performance. This analysis feeds the organization's work in lobbying and information dissemination on the performance of state government schemes and departments.
Volgo-Vvatsky Potential (VVP), Russia is a non-profit partnership working to develop cooperation between non-profit, municipal and state sectors. The partnership works on active and innovative efforts to strengthen democratic values, reduce poverty and injustice, develop international cooperation and celebrate human achievement. More specifically, the organization assists in the creation of open and transparent and systems of local budgeting and fostering participation of local communities, elected officials and NGOs to break the municipal official monopoly on local finances. VVP works directly with local communities on budget and tax issues, and building capacity for local self-government. The founders of Volgo-Vyatsky Potential felt that the best way to address issues of lack of transparency and accountability in local governance would be to develop civic initiatives in the communities where problems were felt, rather than in the establishment of a scientific institute. The organizational structure of the partnership provides flexibility allowing highly qualified specialists to participate in diverse projects and research activities. These principles of working allow Volgo-Vyatsky Potential to conduct independent expert analyses of legislation and social and economic programs, to disseminate conclusions and provide timely and accurate technical assistance to executive and legislative authorities.
Women’s Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC), West Bank/Palestine’s mission is to contribute to the rectification of the long-standing neglect of women's human rights in Palestinian society. The Centre defends women’s rights as human rights at all levels, providing support and guidance to Palestinian women whose rights have been violated and promoting development of a social, political and legal order in which human rights are well respected and women’s rights well protected. In 1998 WCLAC received the French Republic Award for Human Rights. The Centre has five units: social work, legal aid, health, advocacy & networking, and legal literacy & training. Activities include individual counseling and legal aid and representation to abused women, and the establishment of mutual help groups and discussion fora. Advocacy involves networking with other organizations both within and outside government to strengthen efforts to protect women’s rights, research, training on issues from health education, family law, legal structures and human rights and comment or advice on new or proposed legislation. This involves budget analysis at all levels. The budget process does not leave sufficient time for parliament to discuss the budget before approval, but because the government is new there is currently a great opportunity to influence the forming systems and structures, meaning that interventions at this stage will have a long terms impact and there are not entrenched systemic problems of corruption etc to deal with.
Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA), India works with tribal people on governance issues, poverty and natural resource management in urban and rural areas, | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Joel Friedman
has recently joined CBPP and has been doing budget
work for 15 years in the legislative and executive branches in the USA and in South
Africa on intergovernmental budget issues.
