By International Budget Partnership | April 2012
Governments can encourage citizen participation by creating conditions that enable them to participate in a meaningful way. A very important one of these conditions is that all citizens have ready access to government information. Access means not simply physical access to documents, but accessibility. Where the government’s work is highly technical, it is not sufficient to simply make technical documents available. Citizens should have access to information in a language and through formats that ordinary people can understand and appreciate.
This guide is an International Budget Partnership publication for governments seeking practical guidance on how to make their public finance systems more transparent. It follows the Guide to Transparency in Government Budget Reports: Why Are Budget Reports Important and What Should They Include? (2010) and the Guide to Transparency in Public Finances: Looking Beyond the Core Budget (2011). The Power of Making It Simple complements these guides by focusing specifically on Citizens Budgets and offering useful tips to governments interested in developing one.
