Participatory Budgeting (KAD0001)

Commitment 1: Ensure more effective citizens' participation across the entire budget cycle.
Designation: Permanent Secretary Budget and Planning Commission (Co- Chair TWO)/Aid Foundation (Co-Chair TWO)
Email and Phone: jummaibako94@gmail.com 08029820804 / askbonet@gmail.com 08093'194427
Other Actors involve in implementation: Ministry of Finance, Media Office, Office of the State Auditors General State House of Assembly, Ministry
Government of Women Affairs & Social Development, Ministry of Youth & Sports, Ministry of Rural & Community Development, State Bureau of Statistics, Office of the Accountant-General, Ministry of Works, Housing and Transport
CSOs, Aid Foundation, ICOVAP, KAGORO YOUTH DEVT, FollowTaxes/Buidgit, DCDF, BREDPAC, NASF, CAPP,
Private sector, NARAYI COMML NI I Y, LEAGUE OF DEMOCRATIC, YALI, PLAN AND BUDGET COMM., BkLDPAC, etc. CALPED, KAKAU DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY, ZDA, TRANPARENCIT, KADCCIMA.
General problem/challenge addressed by the commitment: There exist low citizens' engagement and participation in the budget preparation, approval, implementation, and monitor¬ing and evaluation process. This results in citizens not having sufficient information and thus not being able to adequately relate with the projects in the budget and ultimately weakens accountability for resource allocations, and low level of trust and confidence in government.
Main Objective: To ensure that budget planning, approval, implementation, monitoring and reporting meet the needs of citizens and that citizens have open access to budget information in a format that is both human and machine readable and is available online and timely
Brief description of commitment: This commitment will ensure that citizens participate and make inputs into the budget process starting with the pre-bud-
get statement, and inclusion of community development charter (participatory budget and budgeting process) in the executive budget proposal, budget debate through public hearings in the legislature, implementation, monitoring and reporting of the budget, Budget information should also be made accessible to all and available on time.
Specific OGP challenge addressed by commitment: More robust citizens' participation in the planning and budget cycle will result in more effective management of public resources and improved public services and contribute to learning for improved budget performance,
Rationale for commitment: By making budget information available and accessible to all citizens in a timely manner and usable format, this commitment improves accountability on the part of Government, provides openness and transparency in the budget process and ensures that Citizens are engaged throughout the budget cycle thereby increasing trust in government, and governance process.
Start and end date: September 2018 - August 2020
Lead MDA/CSO: Planning and Budget Commission, Kaduna/Aid Foundation
Responsible persons: Jummai Balm/ Emmanuel Bonet
OPEN GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIP
Expected Outcome/impact:
Improved management of public resources to provide essential services. Increased citizens' participation in budget processes, iii. Improved governance, transparency and accountability. iv, Increased citizens satisfaction in governance v. Improve citizens ownership of governance process
Performance Indicators:
i. Sensitization of MDAs and citizens on the Fiscal Responsibility _aw ii. Number of communities that submit their community development charters timely. iii. Number of community projects from the charters that informs the budget. Number of town hall meetings held with Government and number of community leaders who take part. v. A Bill on Community Development Charter drafted and tabled before the House of Assembly
Specific Activities/Milestones Start Date End date
1 Establishment of office for processing of community charter at the Planning and Budget Commission. Sep 2018 Dec 2018
2 Develop a framework for citizens to effectively prioritize their needs in their Community Development Charters Jan 2019 June 2019
3 Publish, publicise and distribute citizens guide and citizens budget to the citizens both online and offline. July 2019 March 2020
4 Timely response to reported project in the Monitoring and Implementation portal on budget implementation. June 2019 Aug 2020
Source of Funding: Kaduna State Government, CSOs and Development Partners

Commitment 1: Participatory Budgeting

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan ^[1]

“This commitment will ensure that citizens participate and make inputs into the budget process starting with the pre-budget statement, and inclusion of community development charter (participatory budget and budgeting process) in the executive budget proposal, budget debate through public hearings in the legislature, implementation, and monitoring and reporting of the budget. Budget information should also be made accessible to all and available on time.”

Milestones:

1. Establishment of office for processing of the community charter at the Planning and Budget Commission
2. Develop a framework for citizens to effectively prioritise their needs in their Community Development Charters
3. Publish, publicise, and distribute citizens guide and citizens budget to the citizens both online and offline
4. Timely response to reported projects in the Monitoring and Implementation portal on budget implementation

Lead institution: Kaduna State Planning and Budget Commission, Aid Foundation

Start Date: Sep 2018

End Date: Aug 2020

Context and Objectives

Commitment 1 aims to ensure that budget planning, approval, implementation, monitoring, and reporting meet the needs of citizens. It also seeks to ensure that citizens have open access to budget information and that the information is in a usable format and provided in a timely manner. ^[2]

The performance of the state regarding provision of public budget information was low prior to this commitment. In the 2015 Budget Transparency Report, the state scored 15 out of 100 in providing citizens with budget documents in a timely manner. ^[3] In terms of citizens’ participation in the budget process, the state scored 11 out of 100, indicating that it provides minimal opportunities for citizens and civil society organisations to provide inputs in the budget process.

Dr. Elisha Auta, from Kaduna State University, said the major challenge in budget transparency is low citizen engagement and participation in the entire budget cycle. ^[4] In addition, Yusuf Ishaku Goje of Coalition of Association for Leadership, Peace, Empowerment and Development expressed his concern that the design of the current budget process excludes citizens from participating throughout the budget cycle. ^[5] For example, citizens participate only during the budget preparation stage. No mechanism ensures that citizens participate in the approval, implementation, and audit stages of the budget cycle. ^[6] According to the Kaduna OGP action plan, citizens do not have budget information and thus are unable to monitor the projects in the budget adequately. Furthermore, citizens lack avenues to provide input and feedback throughout the budgeting process. Absence of such mechanisms weakens accountability of resource allocation and reduces trust and confidence in government.

This commitment is relevant to the OGP values of access to information, civic participation, and use of technology and innovation for transparency and accountability. By establishing an office in the Planning and Budget Commission (Milestone 1) and developing a framework for citizens to prioritise their needs in the form of a community charter (Milestone 2), the commitment contributes to improving civic participation in budget preparation. However, these milestones could more specifically note how they enhance OGP values, for example, by explaining how citizens will engage in the development of community charters and how offices will support this process. Milestone 3 aims to publish, publicise, and distribute a citizens’ guide and citizens’ budget online and offline. It is relevant to improving access to information to citizens and use of technology and innovation for transparency and accountability. ^[7]

Milestone 4 aims to ensure a timely government response to citizen reports on state projects through use of a Monitoring and Implementation Portal. Currently, no mechanism sanctions government officials who fail to address the issues raised by citizens. ^[8] This milestone is directly relevant to civic participation because it commits the government to respond to requests from citizens for information on government projects. However, none of the four milestones, as presented, are directly aimed at public accountability. Nevertheless, these mechanisms may help ensure that government officials respond and give feedback to citizens. They also empower citizens to hold public officials accountable if officials do not respond or give feedback to citizens’ requests. ^[9]

The milestones vary in their specificity and, therefore, their descriptions of verifiable activities. Milestones 1 and 3 offer specific and concrete activities. It will be easy to verify whether an office is established to process community charters and whether the budget and citizens’ guides are published online. However, Milestone 2 is less clear. It calls for the development of a framework for citizens to prioritise their needs in their Community Development Charters. This milestone would benefit from more specific information on the intended content, scope, and outcome of the framework. Also, the processes for developing the framework and for measuring its impact could also be clarified. Milestone 4 would be strengthened by specifying what is considered a “timely” response to reported projects in the Monitoring and Implementation Portal on budget implementation. Despite these gaps, the commitment overall is considered specific enough to be verifiable.

Commitment 1 is expected to have a moderate potential impact on government practices. This commitment seeks to address low citizen engagement and participation in the budget cycle across the preparation, approval, execution, and auditing stages. For Commitment 1, there is a clear link between the specified objective of the commitment and Milestones 1 and 2. No office holds responsibility for processing community charters, and the framework for prioritising the needs of citizens is absent in the state. Thus, Milestones 1 and 2 are considered a stepping stone to change the status quo. ^[10] Milestone 3 aims to improve access to budget information by citizens, online and offline. Milestone 4 seeks to ensure that the government provides timely information to citizens on its projects. Although these two milestones contribute to promoting the OGP value of access to information, representatives of civil society felt that the milestones do not directly address the problem of low citizen engagement in the budget process. ^[11] Hence, Commitment 1, as written in the Kaduna State OGP action plan, is assessed as having a moderate potential impact.

Next Steps

The IRM researcher recommends prioritising this commitment in the next action plan. The milestones of this commitment lay the groundwork for a significant opening of the budget process. Potential future iterations of this commitment could take the following into consideration:

• The office for processing community charters could also be charged with informing citizens on how their feedback was incorporated into the state budget.
• The government could establish mechanisms to ensure community charters are developed inclusively, with an emphasis on ensuring marginalised community members are heard.
• The government could provide citizens’ guides and budgets translated into local languages and in formats accessible to nonliterate citizens.
• The government could establish an enforcement mechanism for failure to respond to citizen input through the Monitoring and Implementation Portal.
• The government could formulate future iterations of this commitment to ensure citizen input in all stages of the budget process. For example, it could hold public hearings in the State House of Assembly before approval and once the audit is completed.