Open Budgets Blog | International Budget Partnership

¿Los problemas surgen en los detalles? La transparencia presupuestaria en los sectores de salud y educación

María José Eva, Jason Lakin, Sally Torbert, International Budget Partnership— May 21, 2020

Acceso a agua potable, educación, servicios de salud, vivienda, condiciones laborales segura, libertad de discriminación y fin de la pobreza. La lista sigue, al igual que la lucha. Pero, ¿por qué las organizaciones que se centran en la salud maternal de las comunidades rurales, el acceso a la educación para niños con discapacidad o el […]

Crippling Debt: Transparent Lending and Borrowing Must be Part of the Solution

Tim Jones, Head of Policy, Jubilee Debt Campaign— May 19, 2020

Countries around the world are facing an unprecedented debt crisis amid the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a rise to the largest capital outflow from developing countries ever recorded. In this post, Tim Jones of the Jubilee Debt Campaign proposes a series of measures to make lending more transparent and responsible.

The Vaccine against COVID-risk: Open Budgets, Open Response, Open Recovery

Jamie Drummond, Global Strategist: The Global Goals and Co-Founder: ONE — May 12, 2020

As the world’s scientists race to find a vaccine for COVID-19, and governments scramble to fund emergency responses, we must apply openness to enable journalists, civil society, and citizens to “follow the money,” promote government financial accountability, improve service delivery and rebuild civic trust.

A Call to Action on Open Budgets during the COVID-19 Response

Sally Torbert, Open Budget Initiative Program Officer, IBP— May 07, 2020

Vast sums of public money are being mobilized and diverted to fund COVID-19 emergency measures and most countries’ budget accountability systems have gaps even when they operate under less extreme conditions. The latest Open Budget Survey, released last week, finds that some of the weakest aspects of budget transparency and oversight are the ones that will be most critical for monitoring public resources during this emergency.

From Crisis to Opportunity: The 2019 Open Budget Survey

By Vivek Ramkumar, Senior Director of Policy, IBP— Apr 30, 2020

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, IBP released the 2019 Open Budgets Survey (OBS), the world’s only independent and comparative measure of budget transparency and accountability. The COVID-19 crisis demands quick and massive interventions from governments and other actors characterized by honesty, transparency, engagement, and public trust – the very objectives that drive the OBS.

Latin American CSOs lead during pandemic

Alexandre Ciconello, IBP senior program officer— Apr 07, 2020

Crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic often put civil society organizations on the front lines of response, filling the gaps governments cannot or will not fill. Two IBP partners in Latin America stepped up to acting lead in their communities.

COVID-19 poses heightened challenges for public budgets

Warren Krafchik, IBP executive director— Apr 07, 2020

Government budgets are undergoing rapid shifts in allocations during the pandemic. And the rush to act may tempt some leaders to forego informing and engaging the public on the steps they take. They shouldn’t.

Let’s protect each other: IBP South Africa’s COVID-19 response

Albert van Zyl, IBP South Africa country manager— Apr 07, 2020

As governments fight the COVID-19 pandemic, poverty-stricken communities are often neglected in the response. That is true in South Africa, where the residents of informal settlements are too often “invisible.” However, IBP South Africa and its partners stepped in to change that.

How Open Is Nigeria’s “Open Treasury”?

Samuel Atiku, Senior Project Officer, SPARK, Nigeria, Chloe Cho, Research Analyst, and Jason Lakin, Senior Research Fellow — Mar 12, 2020

In 2019, the Nigerian government took an important step toward greater fiscal transparency by launching the Open Treasury web portal, promising to create opportunities for greater scrutiny of low budget execution. However, IBP’s analysis shows that several improvements need to be made to make the portal a robust and user-friendly tool to analyze government budget information.

What does a ‘culture of storytelling’ mean for nonprofits?

Pam Bailey, IBP Communications— Mar 06, 2020

“We need to tell stories” is a common refrain today in the field of nonprofit and even commercial communications but the word “story,” along with what subjects lend themselves to it and who can tell it, is widely misunderstood.