Many governments around the world are making less information available about how they raise and spend public money, according to the results of the International Budget Partnership’s Open Budget Survey 2017.
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By Apr 30, 2018
Each year Kenya’s Parliament must decide how national revenue will be shared between national and county governments. This discussion is informed by recommendations from the Commission on Revenue Allocation and the National Treasury. This analysis compares the recommendations made by both agencies and explores the main drivers of their differences.
By Apr 16, 2018
This paper examines evidence from a sampling of counties in Kenya to determine the impact of devolution on the health sector. It looks at the distribution of health workers in Elgeyo Marakwet, Bungoma, Kilifi, West Pokot, Samburu, Turkana, and Baringo counties to understand what changes have taken place in terms of the number and skills of health workers during the devolution era (2014-2017).
By Apr 11, 2018
While discussions of equity and marginalization in Kenya have traditionally focused on revenue sharing among counties, data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics and the Society for International Development shows that inequalities are just as severe below the county level. This paper looks at several approaches Kenya counties have taken to distribute resources through their budgets to determine if these approaches address intra-county inequalities.
By Feb 28, 2018
The County Integrated Development Plan (CIDP) is a plan prepared by all counties in Kenya to guide development over a five-year period. Kenya’s Public Finance Management Act provides that no public funds shall be appropriated outside a county’s planning framework. The CIDP should contain information on development priorities that inform the annual budget process, particularly the preparation of annual development plans, the annual county fiscal strategy papers, and the annual budget estimates. This guide examines how to read and analyze a CIDP and is useful during the preparation, validation, and approval stages of the CIDP process.
By Feb 16, 2018
This paper assesses the climate finance accountability landscape in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and the Philippines and examines how government, formal oversight institutions, civil society, citizens, and media in each country engage in decision making and monitoring of the use of public funds for climate action. The report establishes a climate finance accountability framework and aims to draw lessons and guide actors — both global and domestic — on entry points to strengthen systems.
By Jan 31, 2018
Dissatisfaction with the way in which resources have been shared in Kenya has colored the country’s post-independence history and has been a key driver of legal and fiscal reform. While principles of equity have informed many fiscal reforms, there remains little discussion of equity in regard to the massive funds that remain with the national government, which spends the largest share of revenue through its Ministries, Departments and Agencies. This budget brief looks at the geographical distribution of capital projects in the State Department for Infrastructure and State Department for Water Services in Kenya’s 2016/17 budget.
By Jan 15, 2018
Prior to the Open Budget Survey (OBS) 2015, the average overall Open Budget Index transparency score of francophone countries were much lower than those of comparable non-francophone countries. This led some French-speaking observers to question whether the OBS is biased against francophone countries. To answer the question of whether there are specific features of francophone countries’ PFM system that are not captured by the OBS, or that may result in bias, IBP commissioned this study.
By Nov 28, 2017
How transparent and participatory are the budgets of Metropolitan Municipalities in South Africa? While the national government has undergone regular budget transparency and participation assessments through the Open Budget Survey since 2006, to date there has not been a similar assessment of public finance management systems and practices for local and provincial governments. This paper introduces the International Budget Partnership South Africa’s Metro Open Budget Index, which will complete the public finance transparency and participation picture by assessing these practices in South Africa’s metropolitan municipalities.
By Nov 15, 2017
This paper examines the budget transparency practices of six countries (Argentina, Ghana, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines, and Uganda). It aims to identify not only catalytic factors that may have prompted governments to take steps to improve budget transparency but also some of the more specific steps they took (or did not take) in order to do so. It also examines the barriers that they faced in achieving and sustaining those improvements.
By Nov 15, 2017
This case study examines Uganda’s journey toward greater budget transparency, looking at its reform trajectory from 2006 to 2015 in order to identify factors that have contributed to improved budget transparency during this period.
