The economic disruption in the wake of the COVID virus disproportionately impacts people who already were particularly vulnerable, such as those with disabilities or low incomes. In response, governments are spending large amounts of money on emergency measures to mitigate the health and economic impacts of the COVID crisis.
However, in the rush to spend money and deliver services, accountability is often compromised, increasing opportunities for corruption and mismanagement. Civil society groups and activists must be armed with and trained on the tools they need to demand that governments are transparent about where the money is going, how much is being spent and who is benefiting. They also must be in a position to influence future allocations of funds.
Thus, IBP is offering a six-part webinar series for civil society groups, designed to train members to monitor and influence government expenditures. In each webinar, we will bring together powerful examples of budget tracking from around the world and the practitioners that pioneered them. The seminars are for civic actors who are looking to learn and use innovative tools to track funds throughout the budget execution process and ensure that scarce public funds reach their intended beneficiaries.
All webinars will be held 8:30-10 a.m. ET on a Tuesday and will be recorded. French and Spanish intrepretations will be provided during the webinars. Visit this page to register.
Webinar schedule
Oct. 20 and 27—Expenditure tracking: How can you “follow the money”? What tools can be used?
- Tuesday, Oct. 20: Expenditure tracking | Watch the webinar recording
- BudgIT, Nigeria, https://yourbudgit.com/
View the presentation - G-Watch, Philippines (TBC), https://www.g-watch.org/
View the presentation - Vivek Ramkumar, Sr. Director of Policy and IBP and author of Our Money Our Responsibility
View the presentation
- BudgIT, Nigeria, https://yourbudgit.com/
- Tuesday, Oct. 27: Expenditure tracking II
Watch the webinar recording | Watch breakout group 1 recording | Watch breakout group 2 recording | Watch breakout group 3 recording | Watch breakout group 4 recording- Citizens’ Budget Tracker, Philippines, https://covidbudget.ph/
View the presentation - I Follow The Money movement, https://ifollowthemoney.mn.co/
about
View the presentation - The Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development (ZIMCODD), http://zimcodd.org/about/
View the presentation
- Citizens’ Budget Tracker, Philippines, https://covidbudget.ph/
Nov. 3—Measuring impact: Where did the money go? Were services or transfers delivered to those who most needed them? How to ensure that feedback gets to the relevant institutions?
Watch the webinar recording | Watch breakout group 1 recording | Watch breakout group 2 recording
- Afesis-Corplan, http://afesis.org.za/
View the presentation - INISIATIF, Indonesia, http://inisiatif.org/?lang=en
View the presentation - SEND Ghana, https://sendwestafrica.org/nu/
View presentation
Nov. 10—Procurement: How are groups monitoring the purchase of goods and services? How can you monitor the steps that lead to awarding a contract? What happens after the goods/services are delivered? | Watch the webinar recording
- Ciudadanía Activa, Colombia, https://
transparenciacolombia.org.co/ ciudadania-activa-covid/
View the presentation - Observatorio del Gasto Fiscal, Chile, https://observatoriofiscal.cl/
View the presentation - Open Contracting Partnership, https://www.open-contracting.
org/
View the presentation - Victor Maziarchuk, Adviser of the Chairman, The Accounting Chamber of Ukraine, https://rp.gov.ua/home/
View the presentation
Nov. 17—Supporting and monitoring legislative oversight: What should the legislature do to ensure accountability? What can civil society do to help legislators strike the right balance between urgency and accountability? | Watch the webinar recording
- Marcelo Espinel, Observatorio Legislativo, Ecuador, https://observatoriolegislativo.ec/
View the presentation - Scott Cameron, OECD, http://www.oecd.org/
View the presentation - Joachim Wehner, the London School of Economics, https://www.lse.ac.uk/ (TBC)
Nov. 24—Supporting the audit process: How can civil society organizations most effectively use audit findings? How can they contribute to agendas of the supreme audit institution (SAI)? What can they do to supplement and uplift the SAI’s findings?
Watch the webinar recording
- Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia (ACIJ), Argentina, https://acij.org.ar/
View the presentation - Budget Advocacy Network (BAN), Sierra Leone, http://ban-sl.org/about/
View the presentation - Jamaica Accountability Meter Portal (JAMP), https://www.jampja.org/
View the presentation - Ramu Dotel, Supreme Audit Institution of Nepal, http://oagnep.gov.np/en/
View the presentation