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 Nov 15, 2017
While Argentina has consistently produced six of the eight key budget documents included in the Open Budget Index, its scores from 2006-2015 range between 40 and 60, leaving it stuck in the middle. This case study examines Argentina’s journey toward greater budget transparency, describing inconsistencies and speculating about their potential causes.
By Nov 09, 2017
For more than a decade, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) has promised the possibility of dignified employment to India’s rural poor. Yet this bold program has run into the realities of powerful interests and weak oversight. With support from IBP, the civil society organization Samarthan has worked to strengthen implementation and accountability for MGNREGA in Madhya Pradesh. In doing so, Samarthan has made use of multiple tactics and tools. But the organization has also had to navigate a complex and fragile accountability ecosystem and find ways to strengthen it at the same time. Is Samarthan’s work only addressing the symptoms of the problems with MGNEGRA? Or is the organization helping to address the root causes of structural inequality? This case study speaks to these questions through brief exploration of Samarthan’s recent efforts.
By Nov 09, 2017
In Kenya’s Uasin Gishu County, the government responded to the demand of an organized group of citizens living with disabilities for improved services by dedicating significant resources to this issue. IBP partner the Kerio Center supported the citizens group in engaging the government through several formal channels to ensure these resources were best used to meet their needs. Still, the government ignored their petitions, which is symptomatic of situations across Kenya’s new county governments, in which formal mechanisms for citizen involvement in budget processes exist, but there are few incentives for government to make these channels meaningful forms of engagement. This case study explores these issues further.
By Nov 09, 2017
For nearly a decade, the Social Justice Coalition (SJC) has been working to realize the rights of marginalized citizens of Khayelitsha, a community on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. Over the past several years, the group has focused on dignified sanitation, advocating for the provision of adequate and permanent infrastructure rather than the proliferation of temporary toilets that have been the city’s preferred approach to the issue. As the sanitation issue has become increasingly visible and so more political, revealing the deep exclusion still prevalent in post-Apartheid Cape Town, SJC has had to navigate a treacherous landscape of engagement with authorities. Analyzing the municipal budget and mobilizing citizens to engage in the budget process has grounded the group’s advocacy in something specific and concrete and has enabled them to maintain a clear focus on their goal. This case study demonstrates that pro-reform actors need to develop diverse capacities, strategies, and approaches in order to navigate what is often a weak accountability ecosystem.
By Sep 27, 2017
This publication explores the linkages between obligations under international human rights law and budget policies and processes. It seeks to sensitize government officials to better understand their human rights obligations as they decide budget allocations, implement planned expenditures, and assess the budget’s impact on the realization of human rights. It also aims to provide non-governmental actors with information about the relationship of human rights to budget processes and specific budget decisions, so that they are better able to hold their governments to account.
By Sep 19, 2017
This short video tells the story of how residents, elected officials, administrators, and civil society organizations worked together to improve sanitation in Wattville, near Johannesburg in South Africa. Work done by Planact, the Social Audit Network, IBP South Africa, and the government of Ekurhuleni led to faulty portable toilets being replaced, improved relationships between government and residents, and a commitment to scale up a collaborative approach to social accountability.
By Sep 05, 2017
This paper presents two possible approaches to the design of a learner transport grant that will, over time, enable South African provinces to provide learner transport to all learners in need, and ensure that funding is protected for the delivery of this service.
By Sep 05, 2017
These videos capture highlights of budget deliberation demonstrations organized by IBP Kenya in Isiolo, Mombasa, and Nakuru counties. Additional videos include information on how to facilitate a budget deliberation demonstration, how to help citizens think about budget tradeoffs, and additional resources.
By Aug 24, 2017
“Volatility” in the publication of budget documents — when the public availability of documents containing key budget information changes repeatedly over time — is a common occurrence across countries included in the International Budget Partnership’s Open Budget Survey. This Budget Brief presents the results of a study of evidence related to volatility in budget transparency across countries included in the Open Budget Survey, drawing on survey data between 2008 and 2016, public finance management laws, and the strength of government systems linked to the production of budget information.
By Aug 14, 2017
This Budget Brief presents an analysis of the available data on Kenya’s national government cash flow, focusing on cash inflows over the last six years and how that money has been disbursed across government agencies at the national and county levels.
