Upon the arrival in the U.S. of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 7, IBP’s Vivek Ramkumar and the Centre on Budget and Governance Accountability’s Subrat Das call on him to build on India’s innovations in government transparency and public participation. In a piece published by U.S. News & World Report, Ramkumar and Das recommend reforms in India’s budget planning process that would enable government to benefit from citizens’ knowledge of the performance of government services.
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Economic downturns often leave governments with substantially reduced revenues at the same time as they face increasing demand for public services by those affected by the crisis. Too often governments in this situation will choose to curtail spending in an effort to control public-sector debt, an approach that can have significant consequences on the poorest and most vulnerable. Such budgetary decisions and their effect on marginalized communities are strictly bound by international human rights law. The question of how austerity measures have threatened human rights in Latin America was discussed in April 2016 at a gathering of civil society representatives and officials from international governing bodies.
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The Open Budget Survey’s assessment of budget transparency, participation, and formal oversight finds that 98 of the 102 countries surveyed lack adequate systems for ensuring that public funds are used efficiently and effectively.
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