FISCAL OPENNESS ACCELERATOR Kickoff Meeting National Treasury Pretoria

FISCAL OPENNESS ACCELERATOR Kick-off Meeting National Treasury - Pretoria South Africa March 2 -3, 2020 Vivek Ramkumar & Juan Pablo Guerrero @Open. Budgets - @Fiscal. Trans

Fiscal Transparency for Public Participation for Better Use of Public Resources Selected countries: Benin, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal & South Africa With the support of the US Department of State Bureau of Economic & Business Affairs (and the OGP Multi-donor Trust Fund Managed by the World Bank)

How to increase the quality of public services In PFM community, challenge with several solutions over the years: o Development of programmatic and results-based budgeting, with performance indicators o Devolution of decision making to regional and local governments More recently… Attempts to develop greater involvement of citizens in the preparation, execution and monitoring of the budget 3

Public Participation (PP) in PFM Governance Since 2012, public participation is a principle of global norms: IMF, PEFA, IBP, OECD include the idea of direct involvement of the public in the budget cycle… 2017: OBS includes GIFT Principles in survey measurement of PP Public participation is not only on how to improve allocations, execution and monitoring of public resources, but also how civil society can help make government more responsive, efficient and effective Civil society engagement is NOT a substitute to existing representative institutions, but seeks to strengthen and complement their role 4

Policy Objectives of Public Participation Better resource allocation - Subnational transfers in Mexico, with the role of the media and CSOs leading to changes in the criteria for investment projects approval to observe urban sustainable mobility Revised criteria for agricultural subsidies after beneficiaries exposed by SCOs (correct misallocations) 5

Policy Objectives of Public Participation Improvement in the provision of public services - social accountability / monitoring experiences of sanitation in South Africa Improvement in attendance of teachers & test scores in Kenya (when supervised by NGOs) 6

Policy Objectives of Public Participation Better response to the preferences of beneficiaries of services - refining gender subsidies beneficiaries in Mexico Better attention to public security issues in Honduras https: //www. globalgovernmentforum. com/women-leaders-index-gender-equality-mexico-case-study/ 7

Public participation for what? Opportunity for marginalized groups to exert some influence in decisions that affect them - FIJI Consultations provide opportunity to submit written proposals or attend scheduled in-person meetings that are held at multiple locations and are open to anyone interested in attending. Concrete steps to include the vulnerable and under-represented groups of the population, including senior citizens and Fijians living with disability - Consultations on public infrastructure projects in marginalized communities in various countries - Refining strategies to poverty alleviation in several countries 8

Public participation for what? Greater impact of social policies in development sectors: health sector, education, community level public works, etc. (participatory budgeting and social audits in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, India, Philippines, etc) 9

IBP+GIFT hopes from pilots Why we set-up this project • Governments and others ask what we mean by participation and how it can be instituted • Spurred us to develop a vision for participation

Definition of Public Participation IBP’s vision of public participation is one in which the public actively engages in the budget process through both formal and informal state-led and citizen-led processes that encourage to a maximum extent possible, inclusion of poor and marginalized communities acting individually and collectively in meaningful deliberations that hold the potential to influence the formulation and implementation of government budgets.

Accessibility Easy for all to access, understand, and to use, re-use and transform, namely in open data formats Openness Clarity on purpose, scope, constraints, intended outcomes, process and timelines of public participation Inclusiveness Proactively engage citizens and non-state actors, including excluded & vulnerable groups Respect for self-expression Allow participants to articulate their interests in own ways Timeliness Sufficient time in the budget and policy cycles for inputs in each phase

Depth Provide information about key policy objectives, options, choices and trade-offs, potential impacts, and feedback Proportionality Use mechanisms proportionate to the scale and impact of the issue Sustainability Regular engagement, mutual trust over time; feedback for revision and institutionalize public participation Complementarity Complement and increase the effectiveness of existing governance and accountability systems Reciprocity All state and non-state entities should be open about their mission, interests and representation

Pretoria Kick-Off Meeting OBJECTIVES 1. 2. 3. 4. UNDERSTAND the Fiscal Openness Accelerator Project IBP-GIFT's roles and expectations are clear EXCITEMENT about being part of the FOA Project DREAM TEAM for fiscal transparency (Opacity Avengers+Secrecy illers) 5. PLANNING & DESIGNING public participation 6. LEARN about existing participation practices 7. DRAFT Action Plans: timeline, planning, creation of advisory groups, working with consultants

Rules of engagements for the FOA Project • We are peers, we are humble • We want to learn & to share experiences • We commit, set goals & work together (encounter dashboard) • We support, we ask, we encourage and we exert pressure • Work meeting atmosphere • CODIV-19 Etiquette

Scope of work with two components 1. Fiscal Transparency Improvements 2. Public Participation Mechanisms

Benin, Liberia, and Nigeria make improvements in meeting the minimum requirements of fiscal transparency in the U. S. Fiscal Transparency Report Benin, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal, and South Africa establish meaningful and practical public participation mechanisms in fiscal policies.

Benin FOA Objective: The government of Benin enhances budget comprehensiveness and reliability by taking steps towards expanding information on both revenues and expenditures, including transfers to and from state-owned enterprises, publishing supplemental budgets, and ensuring key audit reports are publicly available within 12 months of dissemination of the government's end-of year report. Liberia FOA Objective: The government of Liberia enhances budget comprehensiveness and reliability by taking steps towards publishing key budget and audit reports in a timely manner, ensuring key audit reports are publicly available within 12 months of dissemination of the government's end-of-year report, and ensuring the criteria and procedures used to award natural resource extraction contracts and licenses are consistent with the requirements set by law or regulation. Nigeria FOA Objective: The government of Nigeria enhances budget comprehensiveness and reliability by taking steps towards publishing more information on revenues, detailing allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises, and publishing key budget and audit reports in a timely manner.

Senegal, South Africa, Nigeria, Liberia, Benin 1) Memorandum of Understanding and rules of engagement 2) Technical Assistance: build capacity to address transparency goals and to define the purpose, establish the goals, identify the audience, resources, and timeline to design, plan, set and implement a public participation mechanism 3) Advisory Group: government/civil society compact council group for feedback and recommendations for the design and implementation of the participation mechanism and the communication with GIFT/IBP 4) Work Plan: outlining concrete steps, roles and responsibilities of the main government authorities that will be involved in implementing activities to improve fiscal transparency, a detailed timeline for disclosing new information, and an action plan with specific steps to establishing a participation mechanism, identifying roles and responsibilities and ensuring inclusiveness, impact, relevance and sustainability

A Central Piece of our Strategy The Advisory Groups 1. Is this about participation, inclusion, impact, sustainability ? 2. Basic role: feedback and recommendations on the selection, design and implementation of the participation mechanism 3. Functions: submit proposals, comments, suggestions, working groups, record keeping, communications + meetings with GIFT/IBP 4. Roles of government officials, CSO, processes, requirements, decisions, observers

FOA TIMELINE – 10 months When Champions get to work… Kick-off: March 2020 Mo. Us Advisory Groups Planning Timeline AG identified 21 March-April. May Advisory Groups fully integrated AG Monthly Meetings w/ GIFT-IBP TA on FT FT section of work June-July FT actions Definition of PP mechanisms Selection of TA August. September FT actions PP draft action plan w/ responsibilities October. November Draft plan for PP Nigeria FOA meeting

Stay tuned! @fiscaltrans @openbudgets @fiscaltransparency www. fiscaltransparency. net www. internationalbudget. org