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Strengthening Participation in Public Expenditure Management

Author: J Heimans
Date: 2002
Size: 44 pages (58.5KB)

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Summary

Participation in public expenditure management – by poor people themselves, or by the civil society organisations and parliaments who represent them – is emerging as a major new arena for political activity and economic policy-making in developing countries at all levels of government. Yet, does participatory budgeting really matter for development?

This OECD Policy Brief analyses participatory budgeting. It is based on a review of the existing literature as well as interviews with a range of experts, including members of civil society, government officials, and specialists in multilateral agencies, who have had experiences with different aspects of participatory budgeting. The paper defines the goals of participatory budgeting as poverty reduction and improved social equity outcomes for disadvantaged groups, citizen empowerment and public “learning”, enhanced learning in public institutions and more efficient budget policy formulation and delivery. The challenges facing the three main stockholders in participatory budgeting (governments, civil society and legislatures) are also analysed. The paper concludes with a series of policy recommendations on how these key domestic stakeholders can better contribute to successful participatory budgeting programmes.

The brief argues that participatory budgeting matters. It promises to improve social and economic outcomes while increasing confidence in public institutions. Other conclusions from the brief are that:

• Participation budgeting cannot be imposed and heavily depends on the effective engagement of domestic governments, legislatures, and civil organisations.
• Participatory processes that emphasise civil society participation while marginalising the role of legislatures risk damaging the legitimacy of what may be the only institutional counterpoint to executive power.
• Participatory processes also face the serious danger of being hijacked by special interest groups or local elites.
• Participatory budgeting will be most effective when domestic stakeholders are politically committed to the participatory process, have sophisticated technical capacity, and are willing to form strategic alliances and build relationships of trust.
• Citizen-led participation in budget policy has the potential to improve the effectiveness of nationally driven development strategies.
• External actors, including bilateral and multilateral donors and private charitable foundations, are best positioned to advance the phasing in of participatory budgeting by helping all domestic stakeholders build their capacity to participate effectively.

By reshaping both the substantive content of public budgets and the process of budget policy-making, participatory budgeting can have far-reaching effects on development. To achieve this, developmental organisations should:

• Provide funding for civil society budget work.
• Offer expertise and resources to strengthen the capacities of government departments and legislatures.
• Lend their legitimacy to appropriate participatory budgeting programmes so as to help overcome weak political will on the part of governments.
• Avoid the temptation to impose participatory budgeting programmes on developing countries.

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Source: Heimans, J. 2002, 'Strengthening Participation in Public Expenditure Management', OECD Policy Briefing no. 22
Author: John F. Kennedy School of Government, http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/
Organisation: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), http://www.oecd.org