| Our
Work
Our
Community
Interesting
Reads
|
|
Capacity
Development Talk
during the IMF Spring
meetings: COVID-19
Spending Transparency
through Digital
Platforms
Fiscal Openness
Accelerator Updates
from the Fiield
April
6, 2021
|
|
As part
of the capacity development
events taking place within the
International Monetary Fund
(IMF) Spring meetings, and
alongside experts from the
Hondurian government and IMF’s
Fiscal Affairs Department, GIFT
Network Director Juan Pablo
Guerrero shared key
insights on fiscal
transparency portals from the
comparative perspective and
stressed the importance of
fiscal transparency for
informed public engagement. He
also cited evidence on the
benefits of transparency, such
as helping public officials
better understand how they
perform and deliver public
mandates, how to coordinate
and work better together, and
how it can lead to higher tax
collection and eventually
improved development
outcomes.
You can stream the video
recording of the meeting here,
and download GIFT’s
presentation here.
|
|
Fiscal
Openness Accelerator
updates from the field
April
8, 2021
|
|
Facilitated
by the
GIFT and International
Budget Partnership (IBP),
FOA Countries have reconvened
in a virtual meeting last
April 8, 2021. Based on recent
updates provided during the
meeting, we are glad to share
that our five pilot FOA
countries are making strides
forward in the design and
implementation of public
participation pilots in
different phases of the budget
cycle.
Benin
After GIFT and IBP provided
feedback and recommendations
on the improvement of the
design and and development
process for Benin’s selected
public participation
mechanism, new meetings
are set to discuss ways
forward and lessons in using
mobile technology to enhance
public participation.
Liberia
Despite challenges posed by
restrictions on in-person
gatherings due to COVID-1 and
intermittent internet
connectivity, Liberia has made
progress to establish the
country’s FOA advisory group
composed of members from
government and civil society.
The Ministry of Finance in
Liberia has drafted a term of
reference, and currently in
the process of consultation
within the ministry towards
the group’s formalization.
Nigeria
In Nigeria, members of their
FOA advisory group has already
developed and discussed
options for public
participation mechanisms and a
timeline for the selection and
implementation of the
mechanism. In the coming
months, GIFT and IBP will
provide technical assistance
and support the advisory group
in narrowing down the options
so that a mechanism can be
selected.
Senegal
Despite delays due to COVID-19
related disruptions in
Senegal, the project has also
made headway in establishing
its advisory group at the
country level. The civil
society members of the
advisory group were selected,
and the government invited
CSOs to provide feedback on
the group’s terms of reference
and the FOA project in
general.
South Africa
After deciding on the
Pre-Budget Hearings as its
pilot public participation
mechanism, the South Africa
FOA Advisory Group is now in
the process of conducting
outreach and consultation
activities to obtain the
buy-in and endorsement of
relevant officials and sectors
within the National Treasury
for the initiative. In May
2021, there is a planned
internal consultation meeting
within the Treasury to
discuss strategies to best
integrate the pre-budget
hearings and consultations
into South Africa’s national
budget process and calendar.
You can know more about this
GIFT flagship project here.
|
|
#FiscalData
User-engagement
initiatives striving
forward: Mexico
#RallyFromHome and
Dataquest winners
announced and the
Philippines just
launched!
|
|
|
Mexico
#RallyFromHome #Dataquest
for Sustainable
Development’s results are
in!
After
launching in March within
the context of Open Data
Day, GIFT
stewards CIEP, and the
Mexican Ministry of
Finance (MoF), got
to the finish line of their
combined #RallyFromHome and
#Dataquest for Sustainable
Development campaign. Three
great teams emerged with
monetary and in-kind prizes,
as well as an opportunity to
present their projects to
the Mexico Legislature
floor. However, all teams
are considered winners as
they were able to
participate in a mentorship
program that provided one-
on-one guidance and
capacity-building sessions
with stellar national and
international experts in the
fiscal transparency field.
|
|
|
The
top team presented an in
depth analysis on a program
that provides education
infrastructure to
marginalized schools, while
the second place provided
policy proposals for residue
disposal, and the team who
placed third focused on
research about child care
services and subsidies at
the federal level. Indeed,
the depth and quality of the
work by participants was
very impressive all and all.
Congratulations to all!
The MoF, through their
Fiscal Transparency Portal
team, developed a website to
showcase accomplishments
from this great effort,
including information on the
rules, process, mentorship
opportunities and awarding
ceremony. The initiative
was done through a
multi-stakeholder alliance
with the United Nationsl
Development Programme, GIZ
and Social Tic.
|
|
Philippines
launches the
#BetterBudgetDataquest:
Integrating Transparency
in Gender and Development
The Freedom of Information
Project Management Office of
the Philippines recently
launched a call-to-action
activity entitled,
“#BetterBudgetDataquest:
Integrating Transparency in
Gender and Development,”
which aims to encourage the
public to rally for the
disclosure and analysis of
allocations under the Gender
and Development (GAD)
budgets of national
government agencies and
local government units.
Through this initiative,
data champions, advocates,
and regular citizens alike,
are given a platform to gain
new insights on how the
government utilizes their
GAD budgets, and come up
with innovative ideas to
improve its disclosure, and
in the long run, enhance GAD
budget allocations and its
execution.
Participants must register
through this link on
or before May 7, 2021. We
look forward to meaningful
inputs and analyses from
this Dataquest!
|
|
GIFT
joins expert panel on
Open Budget: State
policy and ideology of
civil participation
April
8, 2021
|
|
GIFT’s
Knowledge, Technical
Assistance, and
Cooperation Coordinator
Aura Martínez recently
joined an expert panel
convened by the
Participation Budgeting
Center of the Russian
Financial Research
Institute, where she shared
examples and highlighted the
core considerations of
public participation in
fiscal policy, including the
publication of information
in an accessible format,
providing clarity on the
rules of engagement,
reaching out and listening
to marginalized sectors and
voices, emphasizing the
value and relevance of the
public participation
process, and ensuring that
public participation
complements what government
institutions are already
doing. The activity also
featured the progress and
amazing work done by many
subnational governments in
terms of participatory
budgeting.
You can watch the recording
of the meeting here,
and access GIFT’s
presentation here.
|
|
GIFT
participates in the
20th session of the UN
Committee of Experts
on Public
Administration
April
14, 2021
|
|
GIFT
participated in 20th session
of the United Nations
Committee of Experts on
Public Administration with
the theme of Building
inclusive, effective and
resilient institutions for
sustainable recovery from
the coronavirus disease
pandemic and timely
implementation of the
Sustainable Development
Goals (E/C.16/2021/2).
The session was livestreamed
via UN Web TV last April 14,
2021.
The said UN Committee is
responsible for supporting
the work of ECOSOC
concerning the promotion and
development of public
administration and
governance among member
states, notably in relation
to the 2030 Agenda for
Sustainable Development and
in support of the
implementation and progress
reviews of the SDGs.
Serving as a resource person
in the session, GIFT’s
Technical, Knowledge and
Cooperation Coordinator Aura
Martinez presented
circumstances that local
governments face when
incorporating the #SDG
agenda to their budgets.
The recording of the meeting
in the UN Web TV channel can
be viewed here,
and GIFT’s presentation can
be accessed here.
|
|
Deep
Dive on Budgets and
#FiscalOpenness for
the Open Government
Partnership Local
initiative
April
28, 2021
|
|
Within
the framework of
OGP’s Local
Government
initiative capacity
building efforts for
governments and
civil society
representatives that
are drafting their
first Local Action
Plans, GIFT
and IBP hosted two
deep dive
sessions,on budgets
and fiscal openness
in English and
Spanish. The
sessions featured GIFT’s
High-Level
Principles on
Fiscal
Transparency
and Principles of Public
Participation in
Fiscal Policies,
as well as examples
of implementation.
The discussions were
further enriched by
distinguished
speakers from the
Ministry of Finance
of Georgia and
Integrity Watch
Afghanistan in the
English session, and
from the Ministry of
Finance of Colombia
and Asociación Civil
para la Justicia
Fiscal (ACIJ) from
Argentina in the
Spanish one.
The joint GIFT-IBP
presentation are
published in English
and Spanish.
|
|
|
SDG
16 Conference:
Strengthening
Transparency,
Accountability and
Engagement During
and Beyond the
Pandemic Addressing
corruption during
and after COVID-19
April
29, 2021
|
|
Alongside
a distinguished panel
comprised by the Republic of
Chile’s Comptroller General
Mr. Jorge Bermúdez Soto,
United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
Chief of Research and Trend
Analysis Branch, Ms. Angela
Me, and World Bank’s
Governance Global Practice
Director, GIFT
Network Director Juan
Pablo Guerrero joined
the SDG-16 Conference’s
Parallel Session 2.2 themed
Strengthening
Transparency,
Accountability and
Engagement During and
Beyond the Pandemic
Addressing corruption
during and after COVID-19
held last April 29,
2021.
He
shared insights on the main
challenges to sustaining
fiscal transparency and how
national accountability
systems in a post-pandemic
world can benefit from
insights gained during the
pandemic in terms of
changing dynamics among
stakeholders and the opening
of new opportunities for
collaboration.
Find the session’s video
recording here and
GIFT’s related blogpost here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
IBP
to present global
scorecard of
accountability in
managing COVID-19
funds
|
|
Against
the backdrop of
the COVID-19
crisis,
governments around
the world have
committed a
staggering $14
trillion in new
spending to
address the
economic and
social impacts of
the pandemic.
Related to this,
IBP’s Open Budget
Survey team is set
to present the
results of its
rapid assessment
of the
transparency and
accountability of
emergency fiscal
policy packages
with partners in
120 countries in
an event entitled
Managing COVID
Funds: A Global
Scorecard of
Accountability.
Join the
#OpenBudgets
community in a
virtual discussion
as IBP share their
findings and
facilitate a
global
conversation on
transparency,
citizen
engagement, and
accountability in
emergency
spending.
Don’t miss the
event on May 24th,
register here.
|
|
|
Call
for conference
papers for the
Public Sector
Economics 2021
Conference: Does
fiscal openness pay
off?
|
|
The
Institute of Public
Finance (IPF) and
the Friedrich Ebert
Stiftung (FES),
supported by the
Croatian Science
Foundation are
organizing a call
for the submission
of papers to be
presented in
the Public Sector
Economics (PSE) 2021
Conference themed Does
fiscal openness
pay off? The
political and
socio-economic
effects of
transparency,
participation and
accountability.
Building on the
outputs of the PSE
2018 conference on
fiscal openness and
the IPF’s Croatian
Science
Foundation-funded
projects on local
government budget
transparency (OLBI)
and its impacts,
this year’s
conference will
center on the
political and
socio-economic
effects of
transparency,
participation and
accountability.
Access more
information on the
call for papers here.
|
|
|
Call
for papers: World
Bank’s 3rd Annual Tax
Research Conference
|
|
|
The
3rd World Bank Tax
Conference, scheduled from
September 30 to October 1,
will be bringing together
leading researchers and
policy makers to discuss
recent research on new tax
instruments, including
carbon taxes and other
environmental taxes, taxes
on the digital economy, and
novel sin taxes such as
taxes on carbonated drinks.
In preparation for this,
World Bank is inviting
researchers at academic and
policy institutions to
submit a paper or an
extended abstract to
events@ifs.org.uk (subject
“WB Tax Conference”) by June
15, 2021. They are seeking
both empirical and
theoretical submissions and
are particularly interested
in featuring research with
relevance for low- and
middle-income countries.
Find out more information
about the event and call for
submission of papers here.
|
|
OGP
launches Open Renewal
campaign
|
|
|
The
Open Government Partnership
(OGP)
has launched its new
campaign called Open
Renewal, a global
call-to-action for all OGP
members in 2021 to use their
new and existing action
plans to make ambitious
commitments that address
core development challenges.
This includes issues around
anti-corruption, civic space
and participation, and
digital governance where
they can share their
expertise and experience.
Check
out more information about
this effort here.
|
|
NEW
GIFT BLOGPOST:
Open Budget
School: An
approach to budget
literacy in Costa
Rica
In
this blogpost, GIFT
civil society
steward, Innovaap,
showcases the work
that they do in their
Open Budget School, a
learning space that
allows citizens in
general to deepen
their understanding of
Costa Rica’s budget
cycle.
Read the article in
English and Spanish.
|
|
|
The
need to “double
mainstream” gender
and climate in
public finance
This
article by
Dr. Sandra Guzmán,
Tanjir Hossain,
Delaine McCullough,
Sejal Patel, Liane
Schalatek, and Paul
Steel, introduces and
sums up the Climate
Finance Group for
Latin America and the
Caribbean’s
forthcoming work on
how public finance
systems are taking on
gender inequality and
climate change
concerns, with
a closer look at
Mexico and
Bangladesh.
|
|
|
Building
Resilient Health
Financing in the
Wake of COVID-19:
Case Studies of
Subnational Health
Budgeting in Kenya
Given
the urgency in
responding to Covid-19
in the short-term and
the goals of meeting
SDG 3 on ensuring
healthy lives and
achieving fiscal
self-reliance in the
long-term, how can
Kenya best finance its
recovery from the
pandemic and improve
its health outcomes?
This is the key
question that this report
intended to address by
examining effective
pre-pandemic health
budgeting and PFM
practices at the
subnational level.
|
|
|
|
|
|
