Warren Krafchik, Director, International Budget Partnership

1. The International Budget Partnership From Analysis to Impact: Case Studies

2. What is the Problem? We have sufficient public resources to eliminate extreme poverty and inequality. The problem is the distribution and management of available resources!

3. Transparent and Accountable Public Finance is an important part of any solution Emerging evidence and practice shows that “Transparent, Inclusive, and Accountable Public Finance” practices improve governance and service delivery by increasing equity, efficiency and effectiveness of public finance management.

4. Multi-country Case Studies Reveal Critical Pathway

5. The Top 6 List: Ways in Which Transparent and Accountable Public Finance Improves Governance and Reduces Poverty

6. #6: Improving fiscal discipline and access to international credit markets Countries including Brazil, India, and South Africa used greater budget transparency during fiscal crises to successfully reign in sub-national government spending. Recent research from the IMF and elsewhere shows that countries with more transparent public finances enjoy easier and cheaper access to international credit.

7. #5: Strengthening the impact of formal oversight institutions Civil society working to track and amplify the results of Auditors General reports reduced audit disclaimers from 90 to 30 percent in South Africa’s poorest province.

8. #4: Harnessing innovation Philippine boy and girl scouts working with government and the private sector ensure major improvements in school text-book quality and delivery through innovative monitoring processes.

9. #3: Improving efficiency in service delivery Community monitoring of public health and education flows improves the quality of health (medicine availability and doctor distribution) and education (teacher retention and attendance, rural – urban disparities and quality of school buildings) services in Uganda and Malawi.

10. #2: Reducing corruption and other leakages Social audits in Andhra Pradesh reclaim $20 million in corruption losses in five years. National Campaign for Dalit Human Rights identifies Rs 6.78 billion ($150 million) diverted from social programs for marginalized castes to spending on the Commonwealth Games.

11. #1: Aligning public spending with public priorities A public database produced by local CSO, Fundar, analyzing the incidence of state agricultural subsidies leads Mexican government to cap benefits to richest farmers and substantially increase benefits to poor farmers. The Treatment Action Campaign strengthened the hand of reformists in government by producing convincing budget analysis showing that ARV’s was a necessary and affordable treatment option for South Africa’s large HIV/AIDS population. This led to a massive increase in effective treatment for a further 1.2 million people.

12. Case study: Innovative partnership between government and civil society improves education in the Philippines

13. Case study: the problem In the Philippines education sector, the textbook procurement process faced a crisis of corruption. Some books were not delivered to students, while some of those that were, were of poor quality.

14. Case study: the response In response, the Department of Education partnered with a number of civil society organizations G-Watch and Transparency and Accountability Network Faith-based groups National Citizen’s Movement for Free Elections Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts

15. Case study: methodology Teams of both government officials and civil society representatives monitored every stage of the procurement and distribution process Bidding Inspection of books at printers and warehouses Delivery and distribution

16. Case study: results Introduction of competitive bidding process, cutting the cost of textbooks in half. 62,000 defective books were replaced. Delivery of books to schools improved significantly, up from a low of only 60% of textbooks being delivered.

17. Conclusions In paying attention to the critical role of transparent and accountable public finance, citizens, governments, and oversight institutions, working in tandem, can significantly improve the management and distribution of public resources.