Citizen participation Archives | Page 2 of 4 | International Budget Partnership

Fiscal Futures: Is There a Space for Better Fiscal Accountability in South Africa’s Metropolitan Municipalities?

By Adi Kumar and Ryan Fester, Development Action Group— Mar 27, 2019

In South Africa’s metropolitan municipalities, civil society has limited influence over local government decision making, and most tactics to hold local governments accountable are failing. Can the emergence of cross-class and cross-race coalitions frame new forms of citizen participation and improve fiscal accountability?

Cape Town South Africa Informal Settlement

Putting the ‘Public’ Back Into Public Finance: How Better Budgets Can Save Democracy

by Paolo de Renzio, International Budget Partnership— Feb 06, 2019

Public finance and government budgets are things few people get excited about, but they affect every one of us much more than we think. What would public finance that puts the public good — human beings with their needs and aspirations — at the center of government policy-making look like? And could this re-framing of public finance be the key to democratic renewal?

Why Reasons are Fundamental in Government Budgets

Jason Lakin, Ph.D., International Budget Partnership— Nov 29, 2018

Modern government budgeting is increasingly expected to be an extended conversation between executives, legislatures, auditors, the public, and other independent institutions. In this conversation, governments cannot simply announce their plans. They have to explain the reasons for the choices they are making. So how can we judge the quality of reasons that governments provide? Our new paper, “Assessing the Quality of Reasons in Government Budget Documents,” proposes five criteria.

Rethinking Fiscal Futures: Questions for the Fiscal Transparency and Accountability Field

by Anja Rudiger, Consultant— Oct 30, 2018

After two decades of promoting open and accountable budgets around the world, the fiscal transparency and accountability field has reached a critical juncture. Although fiscal transparency norms and standards have gained ground and, under some conditions, contributed to increasing budget allocations and spending on essential public services, there is a sense that quantifying the deeper impact of budget work remains elusive. To critically reflect on this challenge and generate new ideas, the International Budget Partnership, the Transparency and Accountability Initiative, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace initiated a set of workshops under the theme of Fiscal Futures earlier this year.

Opening Municipal Budgets in Serbia

By Predrag Mijalković, president of the management board, Center for Education and Transparency (CETRA)— Apr 24, 2018

How can civil society respond to a lack of transparency in local budgetary policies? In Serbia, the Center for Education and Transparency created a web platform to analyze and visualize open data related to the planned and executed budgets of a sample of Serbian cities. The group was motivated by a desire to raise the level of transparency of the budget process in Serbia, and to contribute to establishing an effective and efficient system of public accountability. Learn more.

Dominican Republic: Sustained Progress in Transparency Must Be Matched by Improvements in Public Participation

by María José Eva Parada, International Budget Partnership— Feb 14, 2018

Few countries have steadily sustained strong increases to budget transparency as the Dominican Republic. The country’s score on the Open Budget Index has risen 37 points since 2012, thereby making it one of the top five scores in the Latin American region in 2017, after Mexico, Brazil, and Peru. The Dominican Republic’s 2017 score of 66 out of a possible 100 on budget transparency is substantially higher than the global average score of 42. But while these gains are impressive, more work is necessary to ensure they translate into meaningful public participation.

UNICEF Keenly Anticipates the Release of the Open Budget Survey 2017

by Jean Dupraz, Social Policy Regional Adviser, UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office— Jan 29, 2018

Since 2016, UNICEF’s Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office has partnered with the International Budget Partnership (IBP) to promote open budget practices among governments in the region. Following the release of the Open Budget Survey 2017 on 30 January, UNICEF will disseminate results at national and regional events, and, importantly, will engage with governments and civil society.

Governments Should Engage Citizens in Tough Budget Choices – or Face the Consequences

by Anjali Garg, International Budget Partnership— Jan 25, 2018

Large-scale protests against the national budget — first in Haiti in September 2017 and then in Iran in January 2018 — are a stark reminder that the decisions on how public funds are raised and spent, reflected in national budgets, have a direct bearing on the lives of ordinary people.

IBP Clears Debate Over Francophone Bias: Previewing the Open Budget Survey 2017

by International Budget Partnership— Jan 18, 2018

French-speaking observers have occasionally questioned whether there is a potential bias in the methodology employed in the Open Budget Survey that has negative impacts on francophone countries. A recent study commissioned by the International Budget Partnership examines this issue.