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The International Budget Project
  

Conference papers and resources

The conference covered many themes related to budget analysis and pro-poor, rights-based advocacy.  Furthermore, outside of the formal sessions participants shared relevant information from their organizations.  

Below is a guide to documents presented or recommended at the conference, as well as reports of the sessions themselves, organized by theme.  Click on a link, or on the symbol next to a description to see a document or summary.  You will require Acrobat Reader in order to open and read many of the longer (pdf) documents listed here.  Click on the button (right) to get a free copy of this software from the Internet.  All other links are to documents on this CD-ROM unless otherwise stated.  

If there is a relevant document you wish to see listed here, please let us know at info@internationalbudget.org at the International Budget Project.

Frameworks for Budget Analysis  
(poverty and human rights, examples of budget analysis)

Sectoral analysis  
(health and education, children and gender)

Tax Analysis  

Budget Systems  
(participatory budgets,transparency)

Globalization  
(liberalization, donor influence)

Decentralization  
(including urban and municipal budgets)

Advocacy  
(techniques, examples, concepts)


Budget analysis was the principal theme for the conference, and a general description of the issues and concepts can be found in the introduction to this report and agenda for the Conference.  Sessions of the conference covered frameworks for budget analysis, namely human rights and poverty, and different areas of focus for analysis, including children, gender, health, education, and urban areas.  A series of speeches and workshops examined issues related to tax analysis.

Related to the themes noted above are the following sessions and documents.

Author Title/ description

Budget analysis - general:
Plenary Session on Budget Analysis
PowerPoint presentation on the work of the International Budget Project and the growth of budget analysis work
LC Jain and Dr Indira Budget Analysis: for whose sake?
Speech made to the conference on budget analysis and poverty 
Institute of Public Finance, Croatia Guide to Budget Work (Requires Acrobat Reader)
Institute for Democracy in South Africa The Budget Dictionary with terms and definitions for understanding the budget process and documentation in South Africa
International Budget Project The Guide to Budget Work (Requires Acrobat Reader)
World Bank Public Spending for Equity: The Distributional Dimension. With guide to key readings

Frameworks for Budget Analysis: human rights
Plenary session on human rights
IDASA, South Africa Human Rights and the Budget: outline of a speech to the UN Seminar on Human Rights by Warren Krafchik of the Budget Information Service

Frameworks for Budget Analysis: poverty
Plenary Session on poverty and budget analysis
Center for Public Policy Priorities, USA Presentation notes on the evaluation of welfare spending in Texas, by Eva de Luna Castro of the Center for Public Policy Priorities in Texas, USA (PowerPoint)
Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) Evaluating the Poverty Reduction Strategies of Governments: a framework described in a paper by Albert Van Zyl of the Budget Information Service of IDASA
Uganda Debt Network Paper on the work of the Uganda Participatory Poverty Assessment Project in tracking poverty alleviation funds in Uganda
United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Budgets as if People Mattered:  Democratizing Macroeconomic Policies (requires Acrobat Reader)

Examples of budget analysis from participating organizations:
International Budget Project A Taste of Success: examples of civil society budget analysis and advocacy
Consumer Unity & Trust Society, India Memorandum to the Finance Minister regarding the 2000-01 Union budget
DISHA, India Newspaper article on DISHA's work on raising budget awareness at the village level. 
Indian Express Newspaper article on the budget advocacy work of Shramjeevi Sangathana on bonded labor in Maharashtra, India, from April 1999
Institute for Democracy in South Africa Submission to the Portfolio Committee on Finance regarding the 2000-01 South African Budget
Institute for Democracy in South Africa The Poor Remain Vulnerable: IDASA's reaction to the 2000-01 South Africa Budget
Institute of Public Finance, Croatia Paper analyzing the 1999 Croatia Budget
Uganda Debt Network The Uganda Budget and the Poor

Sectoral analysis: examples of budget analysis targeted to sectors which particularly affect the poor were given during workshops on health and education, as well as children's and gender budgets  

Author Title/ description
Workshop on sectoral analysis, including health and education in India  

Children and the budget:
Workshop on children's budgets with case studies from India and South Africa
Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) The Children's Budget Project: (in PowerPoint) presentation about the Children's Budget Project of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa
IDASA Summary of the Children's Budget Project
IDASA Children and the Budget 2000 in South Africa
IDASA Conclusions of 'Where Poverty Hits Hardest', publication of the Children's Budget Project of IDASA
ActionAid Fact sheet on children and development
UNICEF Macroeconomics and Data on Children.  Paper on macroeconomics and children by John Micklewright. (Requires acrobat reader)

Gender and the Budget:
Plenary session on gender budget analysis
Tanzania Gender Networking Programme Outline of the Gender Budget Initiative 
Fundar, Mexico Presupuesto con enfoque de Género: herramientas metodológicas.  Tools for gender budgeting (In Spanish - en español - en Microsoft Word)
Fundar, Mexico

Resultados Preliminares de la Investigación a Nivel Federal Sobre el Presupuesto para Combate a la Pobreza Bajo una Perspectiva de Género Federal level research findings on gender budgeting (En Español, en PowerPoint)


Tax analysis: a series of plenary sessions and workshops examined the issues and concepts regarding tax analysis, an essential element of budget analysis  

Author Title/ description
Plenary Session on Tax Policy and Analysis
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), USA Presentation on State level tax policy and advocacy - by Joel Friedman of IBP/CBBP  Click here for the original PowerPoint presentation
CBPP Leadership's Tax Plan Reinforces Inequities in Health and Pension Coverage - tax policy analysis by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities.
CBPP Can the New Surplus Projections Accommodate a Large Tax Cut? Paper by Robert Greenstein. 
CBPP Poor Families in Most States Pay Less Income Taxes Than in the Past, But Substantial Burdens Remain- income tax policy analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
CIDE, Mexico La Reforma Hacendaria Integral:
Algunos Retos 
paper on Mexican tax reform, (in Spanish)
Center for Public Policy Priorities (CPPP), USA Tax Bill Benefits Business More than Consumers report on Texas State tax bill implications by the Center for Public Policy Priorities
CPPP, USA Texas Taxes - summary of the manual on taxes for the US State of Texas, prepared by the Center for Public Policy Priorities
Democracy Center Chapter from the forthcoming advocacy owner's manual on tax, by Jim Shultz  (not available on web = please contact Jim Shultz)
Institute of Public Finance (IJF), Croatia Presentation notes  on tax policy in transition countries, tax research and the unofficial economy by Katarina Ott
IJF, Croatia Tax Administration Reform in Transition: the case of Croatia - paper by Katarina Ott presented at the Conference
IJF, Croatia The Unofficial Economy and the State in Transition
 -
paper by Katarina Ott
Oregon Center for Public Policy, USA Presentation notes on tax advocacy work of the Oregon Center for Public Policy  
Oregon Center for Public Policy, USA Figures showing the tax burden in Oregon in 1999  

Budget systems: major themes included transparency in the budget process and participatory budget systems.  Many of the participating organizations are undertaking research on these themes, as discussed during the conference

Author Title/ description

Transparency
CIDE, Mexico Presentation notes on the Latin American transparency study (including PowerPoint presentation)
Universidad del Pacífico, Peru Presentation notes on Latin American transparency research (Requires PowerPoint)
Consumer Unity & Trust Society, India Grassroots Perceptions of Corruption contribution to the International Budget Project list-serve
International Budget Project/ IDASA Transparency and Participation: This paper examines fiscal transparency and participation of legislatures and civil society in government decision-making, for better budgetary outcomes
Journal of Development Economics

Budget institutions and fiscal performance in Latin America paper by Alberto Alesina, Ricardo Hausmann, Rudolf Hommes & Ernesto Stein

Public Affairs Centre, India

A Vote For Transparency.  Article from the Public Eye newsletter. 


Participatory Budgets and the principle of participation in budget decisions
Brian Wampler A Guide to Participatory Budgeting: paper presented at the conference on the participatory budget in Porto Alegre, Brazil
CIDADE, Brazil Presentation notes on the Participatory Budget in Porto Alegre, Brazil 
CIDADE, Brazil Outline of the Participatory Budget in Porto Alegre, Brazil (in English and Portuguese)
CIDADE, Brazil Democracia Radical e Cidadania: a economia moral dos sujeitos Paper by Sergio Baierle (in Portuguese)
Centre for Public Interest Law, Ghana Enhancing the role of civil society in the Ghanaian public budget: by Dominic Ayine
Harvard and Wisconsin Universities, USA

Experiments in Empowered Deliberative Democracy by Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright

Inter American Development Bank From the ballot box to the ledger sheet: article on the participatory budget in Porto Alegre, Brazil by Daniel Drosdoff, Porto Alegre, Brazil
University of Toronto New Approaches to Urban Governance in Latin America article by Richard Stren of the University of Toronto, from the IDRC website
World Bank Web page of the participation section of the World Bank's website, including the PRSP process
World Bank From stakeholders to stockholders: module from World Bank Accountability and Transparency in Municipal Governments training 
World Bank Porto Alegre: Where The Public Controls The Purse Strings article from World Bank Urban Age website by Lucy Conger

Globalization, a key factor in the policy context for our work in analyzing budgets, was addressed in a plenary session.  While we may examine the implications of budget allocations at national or local level, the influence of major donors and creditors in national budget systems and outcomes cannot be ignored.    

Author Title/ description
Plenary Session on the policy context for our work
Consumer Unity & Trust Society (CUTS), India Liberalization and Poverty: is there a virtuous circle?  Paper from the CUTS website
CUTS, India Profileof SAWTEE (South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment)
CUTS, India Profile of the CUTS Centre for International Trade, Economics & Environment 
Democracy Center Bolivia's War Over Water: series of reports by Jim Shultz on the clashes in Cochabamba, Bolivia, over the rise in water prices after privatization.
Elimu Campaign The role of donors and lenders in influencing
national education policies and priorities
INESC, Brazil Monitoring the Budget in an Adjustment Context: the work of INESC in Brazil 

Decentralisation many countries have been undergoing processes of fiscal and administrative decentralisation with the aim of bringing government closer to the people and deepening democracy.  This provides an opportunity for more responsive and participatory budget making. Budget analysis can be useful to analyze the extent and nature of this transformation in allocations and monitor changes in the budget system.   

Author Title/ description
Workshop on decentralization and budget analysis in an urban context, including a presentation of the Public Affairs Centre's work on evaluating urban services to the poor using a report card methodology.
Centre for Budget & Policy Studies, India Decentralisation, Democratisation, Finances, and the Constitution: Reflections Based on Local Reality.  Paper presented at the workshop, by Vinod Vyasulu
Centre for Budget & Policy Studies, India Decentralisation From Above:  Panchayati Raj in the 1990s.  Paper written by Vinod Vyasulu  
Centre for Budget & Policy Studies, India Democracy and Decentralization: A Qualitative Study of Zilla and Taluk Panchayats.  From a book by Dr Indira with Anuradha, Jayasimha, Kiran Kumar, Shashi Kumar, Thyagarajan  
FUNDAR, Mexico Análisis de Presupuestos Públicos y Generación de Propuestas Ciudadanas (In Spanish - en español - requiere Acrobat Reader)
Public Affairs Centre, India Report card studies by Public Affairs Centre.  Summary of the report card methodology 
Public Affairs Centre, India A Report Card on Public Services in Madras.  Article from Public Affairs Centre newsletter detailing the findings Madras study  
Public Affairs Centre, India Public Services and the Urban Poor : 
A comparative assessment across five Indian cities. 
Article from Public Affairs Centre newsletter detailing the findings from the five city study  

Advocacy The final sessions of the conference examined some of the tools and techniques for budget advocacy, and the values and concepts involved.  This includes communication, networking and capacity building   

Author Title/ description
Plenary session on advocacy
Workshops on advocacy and communication
Workshop on enhancing civil society's voice in the budget process
Workshop on developing and using indicators
Session on networking and collaboration
Democracy Center Lobbying, the basics  From the Democracy Center website, with tips for effective lobbying and communication
Democracy Center

Key Questions for Developing an Advocacy Strategy From the Democracy Center website, by Jim Shultz 

Democracy Center

Developing a Strategy:  Democracy’s Roadmap  Chapter from the Democracy Center's forthcoming book, the Democracy Owner's Manual, by Jim Shultz (not available on web - please contact Jim Shultz)