Chronic budget credibility challenges can undermine efforts to prioritize spending for development goals. Underspent budgets can leave sectors and programs starved of resources, overspent budgets can result in high deficits and debt crises. Shifts across sectors and ministries undermine the priorities set out by the legislature in the annual budget and can result in some sectors being deprioritized during budget implementation.

The 2021 survey represents the collective work of our global network of researchers in each country. This round, however, we did something different. We worked hand-in-hand with a select group of partners to co-author our global report and eight regional reports. This new approach has allowed us to benefit from the rich insights of our global partners and present key recommendations to spur action at the global, regional and country level.

In a three-part learning series, we explore how our Strengthening Public Accountability for Results and Knowledge (SPARK) initiative has built the capabilities of grassroots groups to collectively engage with fiscal governance systems.

This paper documents the rapidly growing empirical literature that can plausibly claim to identify causal effects of transparency or participation in budgeting in a variety of contexts. Recent studies convincingly demonstrate that the power of audits travels well beyond the context of initial field-defining studies, consider participatory budgeting beyond Brazil, where such practices were pioneered, and examine previously neglected outcomes, notably revenues and procurement.