Creating Incentives for Budget Accountability and Good Financial Governance Through an Ecosystem Approach: What Can External Actors Do?

May 5, 2016

May 2016 | by Paolo de Renzio, International Budget Partnership with support of the Sector Program on Good Financial Governance

accountability-ecosystemPast efforts at promoting public finance management reforms have mostly focused on strengthening basic systems and capacities in ministries of finance. But there is a growing understanding of the need for a more comprehensive approach that recognizes the role played by different actors in the budget process – and the complementarities that exist among them – in holding the executive to account. GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), through its Sector Program on Good Financial Governance, and the International Budget Partnership have each been at the forefront of this holistic approach, working with a broad range of actors to promote Good Financial Governance and, in particular, budget transparency and accountability.

This paper brings together the findings from a joint research project aimed at gaining a better understanding of the role of different accountability actors play in promoting budget transparency and accountability. It explores how different accountability actors collaborate, and the ongoing and potential roles of external actors (such as development partners, implementing agencies and non-government organizations) in providing support to reforms. The research builds on both organizations’ current work in this area, and is based on country studies that were carried out in Burkina Faso, El Salvador, Georgia, Indonesia, Kenya, and South Africa.

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