Introducing
the Open Fiscal Data
Package standard version
1.0
Join us in our Webinar!
For
the last three years, GIFT and Open
Knowledge International
(OKI) have
partnered to develop a tool
that makes it easy for
governments to publish
budget data for anyone to
view, visualize and
integrate. Building on OKI’s
OpenSpending platform and
involving also the BOOST
World Bank initiative and a
dedicated open data
community (most prominently
the Mexican Ministry of
Finance, who adopted Fiscal
Data Package to be used for
publishing their official
budget data in 2016), GIFT and
OKI have worked together to
have governments benefiting
from the tool, piloting it
and publishing fiscal
information in open formats.
Through this partnership,
OKI has developed the Open
Fiscal Data Package
standard. Its
version
1.0
is now available!
Sharing
experiences on IT for
Citizen Engagement in
Public Service Delivery at
the OGP Global Summit in
Tbilisi, Georgia July
17-19
The
impact of digitalization
on citizen engagement in
the provision of public
goods and services, and
country initiatives to
increase public
participation through the
intensified use and
optimization of IT was at
the center of discussions
among GIFT
members and partners, on a
side event on July 17, as
well as in the very well
attended OGP Global Summit
agenda session, The
Impact of Digitalization
on Citizen Engagement in
the Provision of Public
Services, on July
19.
Among other experiences,
participants learned about
the new and improved
Brazilian Fiscal
Transparency portal
developed by the Union’s
General Comptroller (CGU),
the efforts of the Supreme
Audit Institution of
Georgia to engage
citizens in monitoring
public expenditures with
technology to make complex
issues like debt, exchange
rates and audit reports
more accessible; recent
efforts in linking budget
open data formats (Fiscal
Data Package) and the Open
Contracting Data Standard
(Procurement process in
open data formats) for
significant improvement in
fiscal transparency.
Representatives from civil
society and ministries of
finance of other countries
like Colombia, Chile,
Mexico, Paraguay and
Ukraine, and Paraguay
finance shared how the use
of information
technologies has allowed a
better provision of public
services, with an enhanced
engagement from the
beneficiaries. The winners
of the #DatosEnLaCalle
Rally from Chile, Colombia
or Mexico also shared
their experiences.
A
High-Level Regional
Dialogue on Budget
Transparency and
Participation in Tbilisi July
18
Gathered
by IBP and the Ministry of
Finance of Georgia, with
USAid and World Bank
support, high level
officials from the
governments of Georgia,
Macedonia, Azerbaijan,
Ukraine, Armenia and
Bosnia Herzegovina put
their minds together with
civil society
organizations from the
region to dialogue about
budget transparency and
participation. The meeting
was a continuation of a
series of efforts in the
Central, Eastern and
South-Eastern European
region, to foster fiscal
transparency and
participation, of which GIFT
stewards has been actively
involved (World Bank-IMF
Spring meetings, PEMPAL
meeting in Austria,
OECD-SBO meeting in
Zagreb, and upcoming GIFT
General Stewards meeting
in Portugal in October).
Key issues, such as the
role of accountability
institutions in
transforming the way
public services are
designed and delivered,
making it easier for
governments to respond to
needs of the people and
strengthen the legitimacy
of institutions, or the
importance of sustained
political will to achieve
better results were
extensively discussed.
Echoing many of the voices
in the room, GIFT
Network Director concluded
with his optimism with a
region that very well
understands the absolute
need to include taxpayers
and citizens, in general,
in the decisions around
public budgets.
Assisting
OLACEFS in enhancing their
networking strategy,
Asuncion, Paraguay
To
support the Latin American
and Caribbean Organization
of Supreme Audit
Institutions (OLACEFS, in
Spanish) in developing a
strategy to communicate
with external
stakeholders, GIFT
participated in a planning
meeting in Asuncion to
share the network’s
experience in engaging and
communicating with
members, partners and the
fiscal transparency
community of practice.
Participants discussed how
OLACEF can better
articulate its interest
groups in international
agenda discussion arenas.
UPCOMING
1.
Building fiscal
transparency portals
Wednesday, September 26,
at 10am EST
2. Communicating
the budget. How to
promote the use of
budget information
Wednesday, October 24, at
10am EST
3. Building a
strong budget open data
policy
Wednesday, November 21 at
10am EST
4.
Getting real with the use
of budget open data.
Examples from the field
Wednesday, December 5 at
10am EST
5. Exploring
effective ways to engage
citizens. The role of
digital tools, what works?
Wednesday, January 23, 2019,
at 10am EST
6. Educating about
the budget- Online courses
experiences
Wednesday, February 27, 2019
at 10am EST
International
Open Data Conference.
Buenos Aires, 24-28
September.
Join
GIFT
Steward, the Open
Contracting Partnership, at
the International Open Data
Conference (IODC
in Buenos Aires)
in the sessions they have
planned:
• “Open contracting in
practice: Use, challenges,
impact” (Official IODC
pre-event on Tuesday,
25 September) organized
together with OCP’s partners
ILDA, a GIFT Steward) and
Hivos will be a forum to
hear experiences and learn
from peers. Registerhere.
This event will be in
English
• “Open Contracting Abrelab”
(Wednesday, 26 September).
At Abrelatam,
OCP will host an open
contracting lab, focused in
Latin America, together with
ILDA and HIVOS. This event
will be in Spanish.
• “Open Cities Summit”(Monday,
24 September). Join
the OCP at a hands-on open
contracting session during
the Open
Cities Summit.
This event will be in
English.
See the full conference program and
join the OCP for their
Spotlight session on Friday.
This event will run in
English and Spanish.
GIFT
General Stewards Meeting,
October 15-17 in Cascais,
Portugal
With
the generosity of the
Municipality of Cascais,
this year’s General Stewards
Meeting will be held in this
beautiful Portuguese city on
October 15-17. GIFT will
partner with the World
Bank´s Public Expenditure
Management Peer-Assisted
Learning of the Europe and
Central Asia regions for an
in-depth dialogue on citizen
engagement and participatory
budgeting. More to come…
NEW
RESOURCES
Open
Data Tutorial Good
Results! (tutorial
and webinar now available
online)
The GIFT team
in collaboration with the
Ministry of Finance and
Public Credit of Mexico,
Lead Steward, co-launched
the “Open data Tutorial:
Opening and promoting the
use of budget data“ in two
languages. In both cases,
the Tutorial consisted of 10
short videos + 10 review
documents with additional
information + 1 webinar. The
Spanish version was released
from May 9 to June 13, and
the English one from July 17
to August 23.
What
were the results…? In
the latest version,
published during this month,
the total views of all the
videos in our social media
channels is 3,637. While the
Spanish version achieved a
total of 6,441 views. Also,
during July good impact was
reflected in our website. We
experienced an increment of
sessions, while both
tutorials were running, of
more than 350% compared to
our monthly average of
visits.
What
does this tell us? Those
are the good news! People
want to learn how to
understand and publish
budget open data!!! From
both sides, government and
civil society.
We invite you to share this
online Tutorial with your
colleagues, team and other
organizations!
New
IMF Working Paper: “Fiscal
Transparency, Borrowing
Costs, and Foreign
Holdings of Sovereign
Debt”
Authored
by Laurent Kemoe and Zaijin
Zhan, this paper explores
the effects of fiscal
transparency on the
borrowing costs of 33
emerging and developing
economies (EMs), and on
foreign demand for their
sovereign debt. Using
multiple indicators,
including a constructed one
based on the published data
in the IMF’s Government
Finance Statistics Yearbook,
the authors measure the
separate effects of the
three dimensions of fiscal
transparency: openness of
the budget process, fiscal
data transparency, and
accountability of fiscal
actors. The results suggest
that higher fiscal
transparency reduces
sovereign interest rate
spreads and increases
foreign holdings of
sovereign debt, with each
dimension of fiscal
transparency playing a
different role. Availability
of detailed cross-country
comparable fiscal data,
especially for balance sheet
items, has shown to increase
foreign investors’
willingness in holding EM
sovereign debt.
Participatory
Budgeting course in
Cascais, Portugal
(October 10-13)
Smart
Citizenship
Academy Cascais is setting
up a true “School of
Participation” to be
launched in autumn 2018.
With specialists from around
the world, the first course
will be held from October 10
to 13 in the brand new
Carcavelos Campus of Nova
School of Business &
Economics University, a
partner
of Cascais municipality for
this program.
A
new article on public
participation by GIFT’s
Petrie and Guerrero
The
Brazilian Boletim
de Análise
Político-Institucional
has
recently published
electronically (in
Portuguese) the article
“What is Public
Participation in Fiscal
Policy and Why it is
Important?”
(“O Que é Participação
Pública na Política Fiscal e
Por Que é Importante?”).
The
biggest opportunities and
challenges around Data for
Development (DFID’s short
blog and survey)
DFID has
recently published a
short
blog
and a survey to try
and gather external
views on where the
biggest
opportunities and
challenges are
around Data for
Development. The
blog is presented by
Neil Jackson (DFID’s
Chief Statistician).
The survey asks
about the problems
the community of
practice thinks DFID
should focus on, the
opportunities that
exist and how D4D
can overcome the
problems and realize
the opportunities.
The survey should
not take longer than
15 minutes and will
be open until Sunday
9th September 2018.
The answers provided
are for DFID’s
internal purposes
and will not be
shared with external
parties. DFID will
however, be sharing
a summary of
findings from the
survey.
Taxing
Africa: Coercion, Reform
and Development
Authored
by Mick Moore,
Wilson Prichard and
Odd-Helge Fjeldstad,
Taxing Africa is
an accessible and
comprehensive
introduction to the
crucial debates
around taxation and
development in
Africa, including
transparency and
accountability.
Particularly,
chapters 8 & 9
cover the issues of
transparency, civil
society engagement,
and good governance.
Hope
for Democracy – 30 Years
of Participatory Budgeting
Worldwide
Coordinated
by Nelson Dias, this book
compiles a set of new
articles that take us to a
“fascinating journey through
the paths of participatory
democracy, from North
America to Asia, Oceania to
Europe, and Latin America to
Africa”.
With no single directions,
it is up to the readers to
choose the route they want
to travel, being however
invited to reinforce this “democratizing
wave”, encouraging the
emergence of new and renewed
spaces of participation in
the territories where they
live and work.
