Making Public Money Work for All
10:00 am – 11:30 am EDT
In-person Event
1400 16th Street, NW
Conference Center
Washington, DC 20036
Co-organized by
What does it take for public money to truly serve people?
On June 23, the International Budget Partnership and the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs brought together leaders from academia, international institutions, philanthropy, government, and civil society to mark 20 years of the Open Budget Survey and to look ahead at what it will take to make fiscal accountability deliver for everyone.
Twenty years of data show that governments are publishing more budget information than ever before. Global transparency scores have risen 29% since 2008, and nearly every region has made gains. But as the convening made clear: disclosure alone is not enough. The harder challenge — ensuring that public money is raised fairly, spent as promised, and reaches the people who need it most — remains unfinished.
The event was opened by Chigomezgo Mtegha-Gelders, Head of Public Financial Management and Macroeconomics at the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, who set the stage for the day’s discussions on why fiscal accountability matters for development outcomes.
The task ahead is different from the task 20 years ago. In a more contested fiscal world, the question is no longer simply whether governments publish more information. The question is whether fiscal openness is strong enough to support accountability, credibility, and trust when public choices are hardest. The Open Budget Survey remains valuable not just as an index, but as a platform for change—bringing governments, oversight institutions, civil society, and citizens together around a shared diagnosis of strengths, gaps, and reform priorities.
The quality, accessibility, and usability of information are just as important as the volume of information released. The next frontier is to make transparency more actionable. Digital tools, modern public financial management systems, and stronger partnerships with civil society and fiscal institutions can help transform data into meaningful public understanding and engagement.
International Budget Partnership’s Executive Director Ana Patricia Muñoz presented the key findings of the Open Budget Survey 2025, covering 82 countries, and walked attendees through 20 years of data on budget transparency, participation, and oversight, highlighting both the persistent gaps and the bright spots where meaningful reform has taken hold.
Transparency is now taken as a given and as a norm, but we cannot take it for granted. It is not about transparency. It's about the trust that this entails and the platform for reform that this can bring about.
Over the years, transparency has continued on an upward trajectory, and participation, while still the lowest-scoring pillar, has seen some of the highest gains. Unfortunately, when it comes to oversight, you pretty much see a flat line.
And while averages tell an important story, they also hide a lot. What is powerful about the Open Budget Survey is that we can see and dissect the data in different ways. And we are able to highlight stories of change even in the most complex environments. Across different regions and income levels, we see that progress is possible. We see countries improving transparency, innovating on participation, and building stronger accountability ecosystems.
Ana Patricia MuñozExecutive Director at the International Budget Partnership
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Panel 1 – Who Pays, Who Benefits: Fiscal Policy and Equity
Moderated by Andrés Mejía Acosta (Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame), this panelåPanel 1 – Who Pays, Who Benefits: Fiscal Policy and Equity
Moderated by Andrés Mejía Acosta (Keough School of Global Affairs, University of Notre Dame), this panel examined the gap between fiscal policies and truly equitable outcomes—asking who bears the burden of taxation, who benefits from exemptions, and whether borrowing decisions are made in the public interest—including for women and marginalized groups. And crucially, how can civil society and oversight actors create the conditions for fairer fiscal choices before decisions are made?
John Kinuthia shared insights from Kenya highlighting how domestic constituencies can be fostered and built to promote public engagement and advocacy around critical fiscal policy choices including through coalitions like Okoa Uchumi which promotes domestic debt accountability. Caren Grown highlighted the key role that politics and norms play in fiscal policy and decision-making and made the case for a new fiscal paradigm that considers how fiscal capacity can be expanded through investments in climate resilience and care systems that can expand productivity and domestic resource mobilization long-term. examined the gap between fiscal policies and truly equitable outcomes—asking who bears the burden of taxation, who benefits from exemptions, and whether borrowing decisions are made in the public interest—including for women and marginalized groups. And crucially, how can civil society and oversight actors create the conditions for fairer fiscal choices before decisions are made?
John Kinuthia shared insights from Kenya highlighting how domestic constituencies can be fostered and built to promote public engagement and advocacy around critical fiscal policy choices including through coalitions like Okoa Uchumi which promotes domestic debt accountability. Caren Grown highlighted the key role that politics and norms play in fiscal policy and decision-making and made the case for a new fiscal paradigm that considers how fiscal capacity can be expanded through investments in climate resilience and care systems that can expand productivity and domestic resource mobilization long-term.
There is not necessarily a trade-off between equity, efficiency, and growth. But right now, we know that equity is not very high on the political agenda, and I think that we can do much more to bring that back. We have compelling evidence that fairer tax systems, stronger domestic resource mobilization, and more progressive approaches to taxation can support not only justice and inclusion, but also economic growth and long-term development.
The challenge is not only designing better policies; it is understanding the political forces that determine whether those policies ever become reality. We need to work on changing narratives and paradigms and make sure that we have citizen movements, citizen engagement and allies helping us. The more we think about how we can change narratives and argue across the board for some of these things, the stronger we'll be.
Caren GrownSenior Fellow and Director, Center for Sustainable Development,
Brookings Institution
Budgets are political more than they are technical. It's about incentives. It's about the choices that governments are making. In the current fiscal pressures that countries like Kenya face, whether it's more taxes being proposed or austerity measures being introduced, we have created a very charged environment around those choices. Because ultimately, we're deciding who gets taxed, who benefits from government programs, and who misses out.
I think the lesson is that we need a bigger movement to care and place more pressure on government to justify the trade-offs it is making. Those conversations must continue happening. If those who depend on public services become more involved in budget debates, then civic space becomes harder to close.
John KinuthiaDeputy Executive Director, Bajeti Hub, Kenya
Panel 2 – The Execution Problem: From Budget Plans to Spending Reality
Even when budgets are well designed, delivery often breaks down at implementation. Funds are delayed, reallocated, or poorly monitored, and communities bear the cost. Moderated by Gustavo A. Flores-Macías (School of Public Policy, University of Maryland), this panel explored what it actually takes to fix execution problems: which coalitions need to come together, whose incentives need to align, and how community evidence can move from anecdote to actionable pressure on government. The discussion drew on concrete experience from Nigeria and cross-country research on the conditions under which governments can and do leverage budgets effectively to deliver better outcomes on health, education and other key sectors.
Shantayanan Devarajan highlighted the challenges of ensuring that allocations deliver better service outcomes, emphasizing the importance of transparency on service performance and the need to shift political incentives to ensure public money is targeted at those who are most excluded from public services. Yinka Babalola shared key insights from IBP’s work bringing civic and government allies together to improve budget execution in primary healthcare in Nigeria.
If you look more closely at health and education spending, it is often skewed toward the rich rather than the poor. In India, for example, 33 percent of public health spending goes to the richest 20 percent of the population, while less than 8 percent reaches the poorest quintile. As a result, less funding is available for primary schools or health clinics that serve the poor. And even when resources are allocated to primary schools and clinics, leakages remain a huge problem. We need stronger incentives to ensure resources reach their intended beneficiaries and that spending is directed toward what matters most for the poor rather than being captured by the better-off.
This is where transparency initiatives like those of the International Budget Partnership can make a real difference. Evidence shows that publishing data on leakages reduces leakages, same way that publishing data on teacher absenteeism reduces absenteeism. There are things we can do, but we have to stop saying, 'Once we've got the money allocated, we're done,' because we're not even close to being done.
Shantayanan DevarajanProfessor of the Practice of International Development,
Georgetown University
Our partners were able to translate complex budget data into concise, decision-ready material—snapshots, infographics, two-page briefs—which helped government actors and communities connect spending patterns to actual service results.
We shouldn't underestimate the ability of communities and community-based CSOs to drive change from the bottom up. They are already doing effective advocacy, and if we equip them with the right skills, the knowledge and the tools, it dials up their efforts to another level. They're able to speak knowledgeably about budget execution challenges in a manner that not only holds the attention of government officials but actually opens doors for them to contribute meaningfully to discussions on how public finances are managed to provide last-mile services.
Yinka BabalolaCountry Director, International Budget Partnership Nigeria
Looking ahead, the Open Budget Survey itself is evolving. Ana Patricia Muñoz closed the event by announcing that IBP will leverage new technologies to streamline the transparency research phase and innovate the methodology to better capture the dynamics at play in fiscal accountability. After 20 years of building this movement — alongside civil society partners in more than 120 countries across the world — a revamped survey will provide a springboard for deepening reforms that ensure public money delivers for all.
The journey continues, and the invitation is open for all to be part of it.
The OBS 2025 global report is available now.
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