Daily Conference Draft Agenda

Sunday, February 21
Monday, February 22
Tuesday, February 23
Wednesday, February 24
Thursday, February 25

Sunday, February 21

17:30 to 21:00 Welcome dinner.

• Introduction: Michael Lipsky, Ford Foundation
• Keynote address: Wilmot James, Dean of Humanities (University of Cape Town) on "Democratic Spaces"

Monday, February 22

This day provided exposure to illustrative budget projects, including the Idasa Budget Information Service and exciting new initiatives in Mexico and India. The first sessions concentrated on the work of three institutions in detail, allowing an appreciation of the socio-economic and institutional context. The day concluded with small group breakouts into issue clusters, to facilitate the exchange of information among participants with shared interests. In these workshops delegates shared detailed technical knowledge and located the people and questions they were most interested in pursuing during the informal sessions. The overall aim of the day was to appreciate the diversity of possible activities and to begin to explore the replicability of some of these options.

9:00 to 9:30 Introduction to the conference and the agenda

• Isaac Shapiro (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities / International Budget Project, USA)

9:30 to 10:45 Budget issues in South Africa and the Idasa: Budget Information Service

• Warren Krafchik (Idasa: Budget Information Service, South Africa)

11:00 to 12:15 New budget initiatives around the world

• Juan Pablo Guerrero (CIDE, Mexico)
• Vinod Viyasalu (Centre for Budget and Social Studies, India)

14:00 to 15:15 Small group breakouts by issues.

These sessions typically included one presentation in each area and focused on assessing common challenges and approaches. In the sessions, the presenter laid out the issue in general and offered some of the activities / models that addressed the issue. This led to a general discussion of other options to consider before concluding with an assessment of the most useful ideas for moving work in each area forward in the context of individual countries.

• Children's Budgets

Moderator: Mastoera Sadan (Idasa)

Presenter: Shirley Robinson (Idasa)

Military Budgets (Chris Wing, Ford Foundation)

Intergovernmental Financial Relations

Moderator: Alexander Puzanov (IUE, Russia)

Presenter: Albert Van Zyl (Idasa)

• Getting Started on Budget Work (Iris Lav, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, USA)

15:15 to 15:30 Tea / Coffee break

15:30 to 16:45 Breakouts Session 2.

• Women's Budgets

Moderator: Maria Louisa Sanchez Fuentes (Equidad de Genero, Mexico)

Presenter: Debbie Budlender (South African Women's Budget)

Municipal Budgets

Moderator: Shashikant Karnik (Centre for Budget Studies, India)

Presenter: Alexander Sungurov (Strategy, Russia)

• What to do when budgets are released

Moderator: Nafez I. Abu Bakr (An Najah University, West Bank/Palestine)

Presenter: Dan Gerlach (Justice and Community Centre, USA)

• Taxes

Moderator: Fausto Hernandez Trillo (CIDE, Mexico)

Presenter: Jean Ross (California Budget Project, USA)

 Tuesday, February 23

The second day began the discussion of issues related to transparency and participation in the budget process. Among the questions that were addressed: in the context of the budget, what is meant by transparency and participation? How can budget systems be assessed to see if they meet these goals? To what extent and in what ways do the budget systems of participants meet, or fail to meet, these goals? Are there common transparency and participation weak points internationally? What tools /strategies are available to strengthen transparency and participation in budget systems? Can these tools be applied across countries?

The day began with an examination of the IMF transparency scorecard. Thereafter, the conference addressed a pilot survey that has been applied to track transparency and participation in South Africa. The replicability of this and other methodologies were then considered in region-specific workshops.

• 9:00 to 10:30 The day began with a presentation and evaluation of the recently released IMF transparency code.

Speaker: Barry Potter (International Monetary Fund)

Respondent: Richard Humphreys (Centre for Policy Studies, South Africa)

• 10:45 to 12:15 Presentation of a case study on transparency and participation in the budget process. This presentation described the background for and the results of a Transparency Scorecard Report for South Africa that is being jointly prepared by IDASA and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. This represents an effort to fashion a tool to monitor transparency and participation internationally from a non-governmental perspective.

Speakers: Isaac Shapiro (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

Alta Folscher (Idasa)

• 12:15 to 13:30 Lunch

• 13:30 to 15:00 Regional breakouts. In order to assess the replicability of the approach presented, workshop participants 1) identified the key transparency issues in their regions. 2) assessed, critiqued, and discussed the potential application of transparency reports to their own countries. 3) examined which options are viable. Reports were then made back to the full group to enable a discussion on how to move the work forward.

• 15:15 to 20:30 Tour to Cape Town townships and dinner at a development project with community members and local music

 Wednesday, February 24

The morning of this day was dedicated to carrying the transparency work forward in two areas. One area is at the sub-national level, the government level at which many of the participants operate and a level where the obstacles to providing a transparent and participatory budget process can be particularly daunting. The second area concerns working with and strengthening the involvement of legislatures in the budget process. The weakness of legislatures in the budget process is a common impediment to an open and participatory budget debate. But it can also provide an opening niche for groups that are starting out.

The second part of the day began with a focus on one of the most common types of budget work that researchers have begun to undertake: budget trainings. Examples of this work provided an excellent opportunity to learn from each other. In the late-afternoon and evening, delegates visited and had dinner on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela and other liberation leaders were imprisoned during apartheid.

• 9:00 to 10:30 Transparency and participation issues at the sub-national level

Speaker 1: "Challenges to intergovernmental relations and participation"
Mr Sussongko (Dir-Gen Public Administration/Regional Autonomy, Indonesia)

Speaker 2: The potential of participatory budgeting to enhance participation and transparency challenges"
Joao Sucupira and Leonardo Mullo (IBASE, Brazil)
General discussion.

• 10:45 to 12:15 Session on efforts to work with and strengthen the role legislatures in the budgetary process.

Speakers:

"Working with legislatures in the USA", Ellen Nissenbaum (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities) (moved to Thursday a.m.)

"The role of independent budget agencies / CBOs" Shlomo Swirsky (ADVA, Israel)

"The debate on parliamentary amendment powers" Joachim Wehner (Idasa)

• 12:15 to 13:30 Lunch

• 13:30 to 15:00 Models for budget training

Speakers:

MD Mistry (DISHA, India)

Paulo Rocha (INESC, Brazil)

• 15:00 Tour and dinner on Robben Island

 Thursday, February 25  WORKING TOGETHER

The final half-day was devoted to a detailed consideration of various ways to move individual groups and the network forward. These discussions occurred both through plenary sessions and through small group breakouts that focused on budget sectoral analyses, budget trainings, communications, and budget process.