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By Warren Krafchik and Gary Hawes This summer brought a flurry of calls on African governments to end corruption, enforce the rule of law, and deliver results for their people. According to U.S. President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and even U2 star Bono, the key to improving governance, promoting development, and securing sustainable flows of foreign aid to Africa is for Africans to take responsibility for their own efforts to improve transparency and accountability. These calls reflect an emerging global consensus about the important role that open and responsive governance can play in the future development of Africa. But how do we know if progress is being made, particularly in regard to public budgets—a country’s most effective tool in tackling poverty? First we need a standard, or norm, to measure against. Here an unusual convergence is developing among multilateral and bilateral donors, and international and domestic civil society organizations around the world over what open, inclusive, and accountable budget systems require. First and foremost, citizens need to know how their governments raise revenues and spend these resources. Using this emerging standard, the International Budget Partnership’s Open Budget Survey 2008, an independent analysis of budget systems around the world, shows clearly that the state of government budget transparency in the developing world is deplorable. Of the 85 countries covered in the survey, 41—many in Africa—provide little to no information on the government’s budget. The findings reinforce arguments that closed, unaccountable systems and poverty are inextricably linked—lack of transparency reduces the impact of anti-poverty initiatives by creating opportunities for inappropriate, wasteful, and corrupt spending. But, this is not the whole story. In several countries, ordinary Africans have begun to hold their governments accountable for managing public money. For example, in August 2007 civil society organization MUHURI convened a public hearing in a slum in Mombasa, Kenya, to discuss development projects sponsored by a local member of parliament (MP), using Constituency Development Funds. The CDF gives each MP approximately $1 million to spend in their constituencies with no independent oversight. Now, the public is stepping into this oversight role. Though initially reluctant to attend to the hearing, upon learning that 1,500 of his constituents had gathered, the MP not only came but stayed for the full five hours, answering constituents’ angry questions on the poor use and outright mismanagement of funds he had authorized. Similar hearings are happening throughout Kenya—and the organizations involved are using the evidence collected to sue the government over the CDFs. In response to mounting criticism, the government has agreed to review the system thoroughly. In another example, a coalition of civil society organizations in South Africa has been central to post-Apartheid efforts to protect vulnerable children through a child support grant. The coalition has helped expand eligibility, achieve a significant increase in the budget, and more than double the age range covered. The coalition’s efforts have made a real difference in the lives of poor children. Now, more than 80 percent of those who are eligible for the grant are receiving it. Similar civil society campaigns in other African countries show that informed, engaged communities and individuals have the potential to transform African development from a closed process susceptible to elite capture to an open, efficient, and effective enterprise. But they cannot do this alone. To deepen and broaden these efforts, the public requires greater access to budget information. Research shows that it is possible to improve transparency rapidly in a variety of contexts. But, it requires political will. In fact most African countries produce substantial information for their internal purposes that they don’t make public. As a first step, governments should post this information on their websites, thus quickly improving budget transparency at relatively low cost. There is a role for the international donor community, as well. Unfortunately the way that donors provide aid often undermines the very accountability that Obama, Clinton and others are calling for. Too often assistance is channeled through private contractors rather than through recipient countries’ budget systems, making it difficult for the public to monitor the use of these funds. The OECD reports that only 48 percent of total aid flows through the budget systems of recipient countries. Once donors make their aid transparent, they can more legitimately call for greater transparency in recipient countries. Donors should also provide long-term, sustainable funding for civil society budget monitoring. President Obama recently said, “Only Africans can unlock Africa’s potential.” Africans are showing they have the ability, creativity, and courage to confront corruption and improve governance, and a few African governments are taking steps to open their budgets. These nascent trends deserve recognition and support. They are at the heart of what is required to transform development in Africa. Warren Krafchik is director of the International Budget Partnership, where Gary Hawes is associate director. |
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