SPARK
Strengthening Public Accountability for Results and Knowledge
Reimagining budget advocacy
Our SPARK initiative partners with large, powerful civic organizations and social movements to help them understand the fiscal challenges behind poor service delivery and equip them with the knowledge and tools necessary to effectively advocate for improved public spending. SPARK combines the strength and momentum of large, “bottom-up” advocacy movements with the targeted public finance expertise and experience we offer to improve basic services for vulnerable communities.
Our Theory of Change
Achieving open and democratic budget processes that address the needs of marginalized groups requires powerful citizen action to shift political will. To do this, we have to partner with citizen-led groups to engage meaningfully with budget processes and generate the political pressure required to shift inequitable fiscal practices in the direction of justice and equality.
Our Approach
Strengthening reform coalitions around critical services
Grassroots, community-based campaigns and social movements have often been overlooked in fiscal transparency and accountability work, but they are central actors in SPARK. We draw on the significant organizing and advocacy capacities of our partners, while providing technical assistance, strategic guidance and training on budget analysis and advocacy. This supports our partners to have more productive interactions with government on fiscal issues and service delivery – areas of policy from which they had previously been excluded. We also connect these organizations with long-standing IBP partners that are experts on local budget issues so they can share their expertise and assist with strategy.
Bridging the distance between citizens and government
Through SPARK, civic organizations and social movements are empowered to actively engage government on fiscal issues to achieve service improvements for their communities. That space – where citizens and governments meet to discuss the policies and services that directly impact them – is where sustainable change happens.
SPARK employs a range of tools to help our partners connect with powerful institutions and officials they cannot easily access. IBP has locally rooted teams in each SPARK country, who use their public finance expertise and professional networks to provide the tailored support our partners need exactly when they need it – all with the intention of positioning our partners to do this without us.
Achieving impact at scale
SPARK works to catalyze sustainable change at scale in three ways. First, we work with highly organized civic and social movements with large memberships that operate at the local and national levels to improve the lives of marginalized groups. Second, SPARK not only empowers active citizen engagement in budget processes focused on specific service delivery challenges, but also pushes broadly for more transparent, accountable fiscal governance and more efficient and equitable public spending. By targeting both service delivery gaps and the systemic causes of those gaps, SPARK works to transform the lives of vulnerable communities at scale, now and in the future. Lastly, SPARK advocacy activities are highly replicable across sectoral and geographic contexts, so members of civil society (once equipped with budget analysis and advocacy skills) can continue to elevate the needs of their communities and hold government to account on a full range of service delivery issues.
Our Learning
In a three-part learning series, we explore how SPARK has built the capabilities of grassroots groups to collectively engage with fiscal governance systems – the politics, institutions, policies, and processes that govern the use of public funds and how they are utilized and implemented accountably to provide services. The learning briefs below draw key insights from a series of learning papers produced under the LwS program with IDS.
Our Work
By Sector
Agriculture
Ghana
| Entry Point | Partners |
| IBP is supporting efforts to increase rice farmers’ access to subsidized fertilizers and ensure that subsidy programs are honored by all levels of government. | Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) |
Nigeria
| Entry Point | Partners |
| IBP is supporting small-scale women farmers to improve the quantity and quality of agricultural inputs and support services. | Small-Scale Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria (SWOFON); Centre for Social Justice |
Mining Communities
Ghana
| Entry Point | Partners |
| IBP is working with civil society to improve mining communities’ access to benefits and protections that are guaranteed by law. | Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM)
|
Water and sanitation
India
| Entry Point | Partners |
| IBP is supporting manual scavengers to access retraining and transition benefits. | Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA); Center for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) |
Kenya
| Entry Point | Partners |
| IBP is working with CEDGG to build community capacity to advocate for improvements in water services for ethnic minorities in Baringo County. | Centre for Enhancing Democracy and Good Governance (CEDGG) |
Nigeria
| Entry Point | Partners |
| IBP is working with Urbasen to improve sanitation services in informal settlements. | Urbansen; ONG3D |
South Africa
| Entry Point | Partners |
| IBP and its partners are working to improve delivery of sanitation services in informal settlement communities in metropolitan municipalities. | Planact, Community Organization Resource Center (CORC), and Afesis-corplan
|
Health
India
| Entry Point | Partners |
| IBP is working with civil society to address pervasive malnutrition in tribal communities, specifically among pregnant and lactating women. | Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives (SATHI);
CBGA |
Kenya
| Entry Point | Partners |
| IBP is working with CEDC to engage in evidence-based budget advocacy to improve primary health care services. | Community Empowerment and Development Center (CEDC) |
Nigeria
| Entry Point | Partners |
| IBP is working with a faith-based community network to improve quality of and access to primary health care services. | Justice Peace and Development Commission (JDPC) in Nnewi, Ibadan, and Ijebu-Ode; BudgIT, Centre LSD |
Education
India
| Entry Point | Partners |
| IBP is supporting Dalit and tribal students (who are among the most disadvantaged socio-economic communities in the country) to access scholarship entitlements for higher education. | National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) |
Fishing Communities
Indonesia
| Entry Point | Partners |
| IBP is focusing on increasing access to subsidized fuel needed for increased production for small and traditional fisherfolk. | Kesatuan Nelayan Tradisional Indonesia (KNTI);
Inisiatif |
Social Assistance Programs
Indonesia
| Entry Point | Partners |
| IBP is supporting efforts to increase access to social benefits and assistance for the urban poor in Jakarta. | Serikat Perjuangan Rakyat Indonesia (SPRI);
Inisiatif; FITRA |
Senegal
| Entry Point | Partners |
| IBP is supporting FSAPH, a federation of disability organizations, to improve access to benefits and social protections including healthcare for people with disabilities | Federation Senegalaise des Associations de Personnes Handicapees du Senegal (FSAPH); OSIDEA |
By Country
Ghana
| Sector | Entry Point | Partners |
| Agriculture | IBP is supporting efforts to increase rice farmers’ access to subsidized fertilizers and ensure that subsidy programs are honored by all levels of government. | Peasant Farmers Association of Ghana (PFAG) |
| Mining Communities | IBP is working with civil society to improve mining communities’ access to benefits and protections that are guaranteed by law. | Wassa Association of Communities Affected by Mining (WACAM)
|
India
| Sector | Entry Point | Partners |
| Water and sanitation | IBP is supporting manual scavengers to access retraining and transition benefits. | Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA); Center for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA)
|
| Health | IBP is working with civil society to address pervasive malnutrition in tribal communities, specifically among pregnant and lactating women. | Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives (SATHI);
CBGA |
| Education | IBP is supporting Dalit and tribal students (who are among the most disadvantaged socio-economic communities in the country) to access scholarship entitlements for higher education. | National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) |
Indonesia
| Sector | Entry Point | Partners |
| Fishing Communities | IBP is focusing on increasing access to subsidized fuel needed for increased production for small and traditional fisherfolk. | Kesatuan Nelayan Tradisional Indonesia (KNTI);
Inisiatif |
| Social Assistance Programs | IBP is supporting efforts to increase access to social benefits and assistance for the urban poor in Jakarta. | Serikat Perjuangan Rakyat Indonesia (SPRI);
Inisiatif; FITRA |
Kenya
| Sector | Entry Point | Partners |
| Health | IBP is working with CEDC to engage in evidence-based budget advocacy to improve primary health care services. | Community Empowerment and Development Center (CEDC) |
| Water and Sanitation | IBP is working with CEDGG to build community capacity to advocate for improvements in water services for ethnic minorities in Baringo County. | Centre for Enhancing Democracy and Good Governance (CEDGG) |
Nigeria
| Sector | Entry Point | Partners |
| Health | IBP is working with a faith-based community network to improve quality of and access to primary health care services. | Justice Peace and Development Commission (JDPC) in Nnewi, Ibadan, and Ijebu-Ode; BudgIT, Centre LSD |
| Agriculture | IBP is supporting small-scale women farmers to improve the quantity and quality of agricultural inputs and support services. | Small-Scale Women Farmers Organization in Nigeria (SWOFON); Centre for Social Justice |
Senegal
| Sector | Entry Point | Partners |
| Water and Sanitation | IBP is working with Urbasen to improve sanitation services in informal settlements. | Urbansen; ONG3D |
| Social Assistance Programs | IBP is supporting FSAPH, a federation of disability organizations, to improve access to benefits and social protections including healthcare for people with disabilities | Federation Senegalaise des Associations de Personnes Handicapees du Senegal (FSAPH); OSIDEA |
South Africa
| Sector | Entry Point | Partners |
| Water and sanitation | IBP and its partners are working to improve delivery of sanitation services in informal settlement communities in metropolitan municipalities. | Planact, Community Organization Resource Center (CORC), and Afesis-corplan
|