1. Open and inclusive budgeting: Working beyond boundaries
South Africa
10th – 11th June 2015

2. A collaborative project
Budget transparency is an intrinsic element of good public financial governance The IBP: a network of civil society organisations working to promote budget transparency, participation and accountability. Collaboration aims to:
strengthen the links and develop networks of civil society and government institutions that are committed to improving budget transparency
Dialogue and Study on Putting aid on budget (2007 & 2008)
Development of the CABRI position on Aid transparency (2011)
CABRI – IBP workshop

3. Objectives of the project
Identify country-specific transparency shortfalls and priorities for reform in four selected countries
Support countries in developing road maps for implementing transparency and participation reforms, using African experience to achieve these objectives
Distill lessons learnt on different pathways to strengthened to transparency and participation
Key counterparts: CSO and senior level budget officials but also parliament, PBO, supreme audit institutions, accountant generals, line ministries, etc => whole of govt approach and involvement of broad stakeholders.
CABRI – IBP workshop

4. Demand-driven joint process of reviewing and strengthening transparency and participation
Feedback into next rounds
Multi-country seminars
Report back on progress
Lesson learning
Multi-country workshop
Country requests
review
Preparation
Technical background paper
In-country joint review
Consultation and joint discussion
Country take process further
Follow-up on demand
Identify gaps and weaknesses and what to address within country PFM reform programme

5. Key milestones Launch of CABRI-IBP Project (November 2013)
DRC and Kenya Transparency and Participation reviews (August and September 2013)
Mid-term workshop (February 2014)
Tunisia Transparency and Participation reviews (May 2014)
Closing workshop and Liberia case study (June/July 2015)
Peer countries:
DRC – BF, Mali, CAR
Kenya: Lesotho, SA, Liberia
Tunisia: Mauritius, Niger, BF, Mali
Throughout project participation these countries as well as Ghana – a few new countries here
CABRI – IBP workshop

6. Scope: Query building blocks
Identification of gaps and weaknesses in terms of:
Clarity of roles and responsibilities
Sufficient opportunity for participation
Provision of non-financial information
Coverage of all fiscal activities in public information (specific inclusions)
Improvements to be made in the coverage of specific inclusions?
Independent assurances of integrity of fiscal information
Imbedding transparency and participation in the legal framework
Having a full set of budget documentation?
Gaps in content of existing documentation
Timeliness of fiscal information / documentation
Coverage of government in public fiscal information

7. What kind of progress can we expect?
Wider objective: keep momentum for reform going. Ensure sustained improvements. Good examples: DRC, Mali, Liberia.
Not all countries have sustained gains (ex: Ghana, Kenya). Update from OBS Tracker – can expect some progress in 2014 index in DRC, Tunisia, Niger, Ghana.
Lesotho, The Gambia, Mauritius, Cote d’Ivoire, CAR N/A
Specific country improvements include: DRC: there has been improvement and timely publication of a citizen’s budget; increased participation of civil society at the national level through the possibility of analysing the budget as it is when submitted to parliament; improvement of the functionality of Ministry of Finance websites; publication of detailed budget calendar.
The Open Budget Tracker (December 2014) suggests 2 positive changes with respect to the publication of the key eight budget documents measured by the Open Budget Index, when compared to DRC’s status in 2012.
Tunisia: As the transparency review came at a time when the Ministry of Finance was revising its Organic Budget Law, many aspects of the recommendations focused on the law as a foundation for transparency, with accompanying good practices on how it could be implemented. The law has not yet been approved but our communications with the Ministry suggest that considerable progress will be made. A central aspect which is being considered is the change of date of the submission of the budget to parliament in order to lighten compression in budget calendar at a later point. As another example, a revisions to commitment controls rules is currently being considered in order to solve one of the major issues leading to significant delays in the audit report – a major failing in the accountability cycle.
The Open Budget Tracker (December 2014) suggests 2 positive changes with respect to the publication of the key eight budget documents measured by the Open Budget Index, when compared to Tunisia’s status in 2012.

8. Transparency & Participation Workshop
Key lessons learnt
Transparency is still a necessary first step – quality and credibility of information
Transparency can facilitate participation but not enough
Joint and parallel responsibilities of civil society and government in enabling participation
Transparency and participation are important at all stages of the budget cycle
Need to focus and do more at local level
Linkages with other reforms
Participation and linkages between oversight institutions
Comparability of information across budget cycle – not the quantity, the quality
Budget execution remains weakest
A virtuous accountability cycle
Transparency & Participation Workshop

9. Thank you