Module 6: Child-Responsive Budgeting (CRB) - PowerPoint Presentation

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Module 6:

Child-Responsive Budgeting (CRB)

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The budget is the ultimate embodiment of a nation’s priorities as it is a product of political decisions regarding the amount of resources the nation is willing to dedicate to a given policy or

programme.

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Why invest in children?

Ethical argumentImplement rights, achieve equityAge-sensitivity argumentChildhood is a unique window of opportunityEconomic argumentProductivity gains and economic growthPolitical argumentSocial cohesion and democratic governance

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Objective of

Child-responsive Budgeting (CRB)Goal is NOT tocreate a new classification of expendituresintroduce new budget proceduresGoal is topresent new criteriaapply tools to measure child responsiveness of allocations to all sectors

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A child-responsive budget…

Recognizes that all forms and levels of public spending have a potential impact on childrenProvides appropriate resource base for progressive realization of child rightsPrioritizes excluded sectors and most vulnerableIs transparent and allows for effective participation of key stakeholders, including childrenIncludes accountability mechanisms

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Main challenges

Availability of informationOpenness/priorities of government’s budget workAvailability of expertiseDominance of certain ministries, development banks, IFIs, etc. in designing policies/budgetLevel of civil society activism and media interestWeak public financial management systems

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Role of development partners in ensuring CRB

Raise child rights issues via analysis and advocacyDevelop capacity of stakeholders, including government, to understand and assess child rightsFund new spending programmes and policy experimentation

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Country

context analysisPolitical/institutional, economic and socialPartnering with key stakeholdersChildren, politicians, social leaders, CSOs, media, private sector, etc.Policy and budget dialogueNational/sector plansSpecific studiesSector working groupsBudgeting monitoringCapacity development activitiesMainstreaming CRB in development partners’ strategies

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Recommended interventions

Perform child-sensitive budget analysesGood starting pointClassification of Functions of Government (COFOG)ActivitiesIdentify child-friendly programs, how funded, vulnerabilitiesAnalyze amounts, distributions, allocations-expends, gapsLook at impact of revenue side policies (e.g. VAT, subsidy)Assess impact of different shocks

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Influence the budget via capacity development and opening decision-making processes

Good starting pointConvene and advocate key stakeholdersActivitiesCreate spaces for making the budget child responsiveDisseminate analyses, policy dialogue, indicator development, verify costed plans, feedback forumsDevelop tools, trainings, knowledge sharingRecommended interventions

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Improve efficiency

Good starting pointPublic Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA)ActivitiesInvest in data and information systemsAssess corruption and governance issuesSupport media, audit institutions, anti-corruption agencies, other oversight institutionsHelp develop cross-national comparative databases and indices of budget opennessRecommended interventions

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Help secure

adequate resources to sustain child-responsive policiesGood starting pointAssess current allocations  budget often already committed and inflexible to support implementation of new policyActivitiesPerform fiscal space analyses, which consider current spending, revenue and financing policiesRecommended interventions

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Carry out evaluations to promote accountability

Starting pointAssess current commitments (sector/national plan)ActivitiesDetermine outcomes for verification with beneficiariesAssess potential long-term impactsReview policy effectivenessDetermine satisfaction of stakeholdersBe a sounding board for determining ‘what works’Recommended interventions

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Group Activity

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Case example

2007-13 EU Strategy Paper for a country in East Asia

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Background

Focal sector is education~80% supports sector-wide approach in basic educationEquity focus: remote areas, minorities, special needsGoal to improve equitable access to quality educationContribute to govt’s strategy to improve basic educ.Overall qualityGovernance and management systemsEnhance efficiency of planning/budgeting processes

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Background (

cont)Challenges and risksDecentralization: reconciling new rolesEducation financing: low public investment, most funds go to routine expenses (e.g. salaries) with little room for funding education developmentCivil service reform: limited political will to address big bureaucracy, corruption, inefficiencies, low payTransparency: weak PFM mechanisms and auditing and monitoring mechanisms

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CRB can improve outcomes

Child rights are inter-dependent, with mutually reinforcing effectsWithout improvements in other dimensions of deprivations, education outcomes will sufferPossible design and budgeting enhancementsCoordinated or integrated mixture of school-based and home-base interventions to address other deprivationsMulti-sectoral allocations and tracking

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CRB can mitigate risks

Risk CRB activityMitigationEducation financing

Raise

child rights issues

via deprivation

and

budget analyses/advocacy

Build/present investment

cases

to

MoF

Help

line ministries to develop child-sensitive budget proposals

Strengthens national

ownership/resource

commitment to education programmes

Civil service reform

Highlight impact of low pay/arrears

of frontline teachers

on

learning

outcomes

Assess impacts of “back office” functions

Strengthens support for civil service reform

Trans-

parency

Open

spaces to allow public analysis

/ scrutiny

of budget allocations

and use

Develop

capacity of local communities to

monitor/track

government allocations

Enhances transparency and accountability

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Takeaway from this example

CRB can help achieve objectives of EU programmes

Improves the design and hence learning outcomes

Addresses implementation risks

Context

of

EU’s new country programme cycle

Important to

invest

in others

’ work aimed at leveraging government resources for greater child-responsive

investments

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UNICEF’s approach

and some examplesChild allocations and deprivationsRevenue impacts

Fiscal space

Supporting development of plans and budget

Costing

universal access

to basic education or school building

Briefings/meetings with key decision makers

Creation of cross-sectoral groups

Formalizing

govt

partnerships

Ensuring widespread participation

PETS

Decentralized monitoring of service delivery

CSOs, EU, World Bank, IMF

PERs

CSOs for analysis/advocacy

Govt

for analysis, implement-

ation

and tracking

Publishing information

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Adaptable tools to support CRB work

Testing the child sensitivity of the budget Child rights-aware policy appraisalChild rights-disaggregated beneficiary assessmentDisaggregated tax incidence analysis

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Adaptable tools to support CRB work

Assessing quality and credibility of policies via the budgetPublic Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA)Public Expenditure Review (PER)Public Expenditure Tracking Survey (PETS)Marginal Budgeting for Bottlenecks (MBB)Fiscal space analysis

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Adaptable tools to support CRB work

Stakeholder assessmentsIdentifying key stakeholdersMapping opportunities to engage different stakeholders throughout budget cycleInstitutional analysis

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Group Discussion

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Group discussion

What are the experiences of CRB in this region?What are the main challenges/constraints for working on CRB? What can development partners do to engage more actively in CRB work? How can UNICEF and other CRB partners help?

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