Newsletter 43 – Nov 2019

THIS MONTH WE CELEBRATE THE POWER OF OPENING DATA

1 Uruguay publishes budget and spending open data in the Open Fiscal Data Package
November 26

We are very pleased to welcome the Office of Budget and Planning of Uruguay as the most recent publisher of open budget and spending data! The data has been released to line item level including different stages of the transactions, and it covers from 2011 to the present. The data will be updated quarterly. This great step forward will enable easier access and reuse of the data.

Congratulations, you make us proud!

2 Vulekamali recognized at the South African Public Sector Innovation Awards
November 29

The fiscal transparency portal of South Africa, Vulekamali, was launched in 2018 in partnership with the National Treasury and Imali Yethu, a coalition of civil society organizations. At the beginning of 2019, the country joined the group of Steward governments publishing budget and spending open data with the Open Fiscal Data Package. Through this government-civil society partnership, the policy has been accompanied by a series of budget-literacy events, civic drives, hackathons, and datathons in the different provinces of the country. This series of events has strengthened the ability of broader audiences to use and interpret fiscal data.

These actions have been now recognized in the 13th South African Public Sector Innovation Awards. We wish to commend and congratulate all the team that has made this innovative project possible!

3 Monitoring the budget to guarantee the fulfilment of rights in Argentina

The Civil Association for Equality and Justice of Argentina, a GIFT steward, has launched the Budget Monitor, a web platform that permits tracking of the resources that the National Government spends to cover basic needs, which are protected social rights. Activists, organizations and journalists are able to see, in real terms, the evolution of the budget of the different jurisdictions, entities, programs and activities of the National Budget. The Monitor also makes it possible to compare different government actions, and see the regional distribution of expenditures.

This site was possible due to the Ministry of Finance’s progress in publishing budget and spending in open data over this past year.

4 Datafest Tbilisi: the international data festival in Eastern Europe and Central Asia
November 14-16

We were proud to be part of Datafest Tbilisi 2019. A three-day reunion to celebrate the power of data and communication, which brought together around 1,000 journalists, CSO activists, marketing specialists, business professionals, government officials, data analysts, developers and designers from Eastern Europe and Central Asia working with data. The GIFT team organized two workshops, the first one on Open Data to Achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and the second one on How to Communicate Budget Data.

Visit the website to learn more about the event.

COMMUNITY WALL

Naming and Faming Honest Government Officials

Voting is currently open for Integrity Icon in two GIFT Countries: Mexico and Nigeria.

Integrity Icon is a global campaign by Accountability Lab that is powered by citizens seeking to recognize honest government officials. It aims to generate debate around the idea of integrity and empower a new generation of more effective and committed public servants. This initiative is an innovative way of acknowledging the good examples in public service and not just on the scandals.

You can now support your favorite public official by voting here.

PAST EVENTS

GPSA Global Partners Forum 2019
November 19-21

The Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA) once again convened its partners, a global network of practitioners and thought leaders from across civil society, governments, academia, foundations and business, alongside World Bank professionals to highlight the power of collaborative social accountability to address governance challenges and improve development outcomes. Through the Public Sector Accountability Monitor, a GIFT steward and co-organizer of the event, we participated in the breakout: Inclusive budgeting journeys; successes, challenges and innovation in South Africa and Mexico, with a rich discussion on the progress and opportunities to make budgets inclusive, and doing it with the participation of the public.

Throughout the three days, we witnessed an increasing number of government – civil society collaborative efforts to improve accountability, a trend that GIFT has supported and encouraged as part of its core.