Côte d’Ivoire’s efforts to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 face major challenges. To accelerate progress toward development goals, Côte d’Ivoire will have to effectively mobilize domestic and international financing for programs that can address these challenges. National budgets are central to this effort; however, many governments including Côte d’Ivoire deviate from planned budgets during implementation, a challenge known as budget credibility, which can result in shortchanging or deprioritizing spending in social sectors. The SDGs recognize this challenge with tracking indicator 16.6.1, which looks at government expenditures as compared to the approved budget, however, in many countries, including Côte d’Ivoire, public discussion around funding on the SDGs focuses more on allocations than implementation.
The objectives of the SDGs in Côte d’Ivoire can be achieved through the credible implementation of the five-year plan (2021-2025) and the establishment of a credible budget. This brief, therefore, looks at budget credibility patterns from 2018 to 2020 in seven key sectors that relate to 10 SDG goals and, in the absence of more formal tracking systems for budget execution information on SDG spending, uses available budget data from reports on the budget regulation law and the reports of the Court of Auditors, which report on spending by government ministries. This analysis aims to show how Côte d’Ivoire’s current performance on budget credibility can potentially impact wider efforts to achieve the SDGs, and provides recommendations for how the government, Court of Auditors, parliament, civil society and the media can expand awareness and action about budget credibility and development goal discussions.
This publication is a part of Connecting Budget Credibility to the Sustainable Development Goals.