Transcript Presentation Title Goes Here

DRAFT: Budget Transparency and Country
Systems
December 4, 2013, Seoul Forum on Using Country
Systems to Manage Climate Finance
Overview
•
Thesis: Climate finance will be used most effectively, and is more likely to be
substantial, if handled in a transparent and accountable manner by national
budget systems.
•
Corollary thesis: Climate funds are flows of public expenditures, how well they
work depends on how well funding flows generally work in a country.
•
Conclusions come from 15 years of IBP and NGO partner experience with general
budget issues in developing and developed nations.
•
Three lessons/developments from that experience of particular relevance:
1) Transparency and accountability have wide-ranging benefits
2) Consensus norms have emerged
3) Useful tools for assessing transparency and monitoring budgets have
been implemented, including the IBP’s Open Budget Survey
www.Internationalbudget.org
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Why Should We Care About Transparency?
• Open budgets can expose corruption and waste and improve
spending efficiency and effectiveness.
• Help match resources with national priorities.
• Help governments secure cheaper international credit and
improve debt management.
• Help governments build trust with their citizens and give citizens
voice and dignity.
• Can increase donor confidence, potentially boosting available
resources.
www.internationalbudget.org
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GIFT High-Level Principles
• Variety of actors have become engaged on budget transparency
and sought coordinated mechanisms to advance it.
• Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency formed in 2011. Includes
robust and wide-ranging group of engaged stakeholders. Led by
the IMF, the World Bank, the Philippines, Brazil and the IBP.
• One early priority and key accomplishment: a set of umbrella
principles that span the various diagnostics, tools, and good
practices that exist. All current tool have these in common.
• 10 umbrella principles, endorsed by UN resolution in 2012.
www.Internationalbudget.org
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GIFT Principles, Access to Fiscal Information
• Everyone has the right to seek, receive, and impart
information on fiscal policies. [Could substitute “climate”
for “fiscal”]
• Governments should publish clear and measurable
objectives for aggregate fiscal policy.
• The public should be presented with high quality financial
and non-financial information.
• Governments should communicate the objectives they are
pursuing and the outputs they are producing.
www.internationalbudget.org
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GIFT Principles, Governance of Fiscal Policy
• All financial transactions of the public sector should have their basis in law.
• The Government sector should be clearly defined and identified.
• Roles and responsibilities for raising revenues, incurring liabilities,
consuming resources, investing, and managing public resources should be
clearly assigned.
• The authority to raise taxes and incur expenditures on behalf of the public
should be vested in the legislature.
• The Supreme Audit Institutions should have statutory independence.
• Citizens should have the right and they, and all non-state actors, should have
effective opportunities to participate.
www.internationalbudget.org
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Open Budget Survey: A Tool to Assess Country
Systems
• IBP Survey measures 1) public access to budget
information; 2) public participation opportunities; 3)
strength of formal oversight institutions
• 125 multiple-choice questions, facilitate comparisons
• Implemented by network of individual country
researchers, with peer review, optional government review
• 2012 Survey was the fourth round, covered 100 countries
www.internationalbudget.org
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Key Findings of OBS
• Major gaps in information. Average score 43.
• General direction positive. Huge improvements in some
countries. With political will, can make major changes
quickly.
• Few opportunities for public participation.
• Oversight institutions have moderate levels of formal
powers, but struggle to exercise these in practice.
www.internationalbudget.org
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Other OBS efforts
• Establishing a real-time budget transparency
tracker focused on publication of the eight key
budget documents
• Can leverage network to do quick studies of
specific topics
www.Internationalbudget.org
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Civil Society Budget Tracking
• Civil society has growing track record of successfully monitoring
expenditures
• Aspects monitored (From IBP’s “Our money, Our responsibility: A
Citizens’ Guide to Monitoring Government Expenditures)
– Budget execution
– Procurement
– Impact measurement
– Audit and legislative oversight
www.Internationalbudget.org
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Possible Implications
• General efforts to improve budget transparency and accountability
will ultimately benefit climate finance
• Climate finance standards and tracking might be able to borrow
from lessons learned from general budget experience
– Importance of transparency and accountability
– General norms can help inform climate norms
– Budget assessment tools and research networks could be leveraged
www.Internationalbudget.org
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Thank you.
Contact Information
820 First Street, NE Suite 510
Washington, D.C. 20002
Phone: +1-202-408-1080
Fax: +1-202-408-8173
Email: [email protected]
www.internationalbudget.org
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