A Budget for the People by the People

With the national and local governments ‘opening up’ their budgets to the public, it is up to the citizens of the municipality, city, or province to check and take a look at how the government spends its resources.  But where should ordinary citizens look for these budget documents?  How will they make use of the documents?  What do they have to look out for?  

It is in this context that the Caucus of Development NGO Networks (CODE-NGO), with partner civil society organizations (CSOs) and CSO networks, conducted a series of training workshops focused on understanding the local government budget and looking at ways to analyze the budget of the participant’s respective provincial governments.  Dubbed as the Local Budget Analysis and Monitoring Training, CODE-NGO conducted training workshops in Davao and Cebu City for members, staff, and leaders of CSOs and CSO networks working in six provinces, namely, Laguna, Leyte, Zamboanga del Norte, Maguindanao, Davao del Norte, and Davao Oriental.  
      
The 3-day training workshop aims for the participants to 1) have a better appreciation of the five phases of the local government budgeting, 2) be familiar with budget documents of the local government units, including the 12 documents required by the Full Disclosure Policy (FDP) of the Department of Interior and Local Government to be posted in conspicuous places, and 3) have basic understanding of the local government budget, its processes, key terms used, the ‘red flags’, and some methods of analyzing how the local budget relates and contributes to local development, particularly the priority development programs and projects of the provincial CSO coalitions/networks.  
      
What could be learned in a span of four months was capsulized in 3 days of inputs and discussions.  CODE-NGO is grateful to have Ms. Nieves L. Osorio, who served in various senior positions in different government agencies and government-owned and controlled corporations, as the main trainer for both training workshops.  With the help of the CODE-NGO secretariat, she designed and carried out the training, and shared her knowledge in local government planning and budgeting including the systems and policies in place within local governments and national government agencies, such as the Department of Budget and Management and the Department of Finance.  The training workshops were also supported by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
      
Participants willingly took on the task of requesting for the copy of the annual budget of their respective province and assess if the priority development projects or programs of the provincial government matches the priority provincial development agenda of their CSO network.  They will also check if the 12 documents required by the DILG’s FDP are posted regularly and are easily seen at their provincial capitol and/or online.  In making this information available for the citizens, government takes a step closer towards being transparent and responsive.  Developing the knowledge and skills on local planning and budgeting and how ordinary citizens can contribute to the planning and budgeting creates a wider space for the organized groups and coalitions to engage the government, advocate for their concerns and agenda, hold officials accountable, and advance reform at the local level.- by Sandino Soliman, Project Coordinator, Deepening Democratic Governance Project, CODE-NGO.