Thank you so much for your participation in the public consultation that GIFT organised about the Public Participation Principles in Fiscal Policies and Budget Making. We are very happy to announce that the GIFT Stewards General Meeting approved the version below in December 2015. This has been a long and very productive process, in which your input was absolutely strategic, so we are very grateful for that.
Since 2012, GIFT embarked on a substantial multi-year work program to generate greater knowledge about country practices and recent innovations in citizen engagement in fiscal policies and the budget process. The work program included:
– A series of workshops on public participation in fiscal policy and national budget processes. The workshops involved central government finance ministry officials, officials in line ministries, local authorities, members of the legislature as well as legislative support bodies, officials from audit institutions, as well as a wide range of civil society representatives (civil society organizations, academics, and researchers). A number of the workshops were held under the auspices of the GIFT-Open Government Partnership Fiscal Openness Working Group (Washington DC, Mexico City, Brasilia, Jakarta, Cape Town, Manila, Dar es Salaam, San Jose Costa Rica, among others)
– Completion of eight country case studies of public participation in fiscal policy “ Brazil, Canada, Croatia, Kenya, Mexico, the Philippines, South Africa and South Korea.
– A review of existing literature in this field.
– The web-based public consultation on a set of draft ˜Principles of Public Participation in Fiscal Policy’ from August to October 2015 in which you kindly participated.
– A final discussion at the GIFT General Stewards Meeting held in Washington DC on December 1-2 2015.
This work program provided a rich source of information on current practices and recent innovations in public participation in a diverse range of countries around the world, which was drawn on in developing, debating, and progressively refining the GIFT participation principles.
The approved version of the Principles is now available. The Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency Network will start working on a very practical guide about these principles and its practices in many countries around the world. GIFT will be happy to keep you posted!
GIFT – Public Participation Principles in Fiscal Policies and Budget Making.
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The Network Director