OGP AmericaS regional meeting

Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 20 - 22, 2017

Main points:

  • GIFT organized four events within the framework of the Open Government Partnership Americas Regional Meeting, with the objective of exchanging experiences in the promotion of fiscal transparency and public participation, as well as providing technical assistance through peer-to-peer learning.
  • The GIFT fiscal transparency workshop included representatives of regional country ministries that are in charge of the fiscal transparency agenda, and are promoting the kinds of transparency processes that GIFT is pushing.
  • The GIFT workshop covered presentations by seven regional countries who are working to enhance fiscal transparency and participation.
  • The first GIFT Award for public participation in fiscal policy was presented to three winners, including the Municipality of Cascais in Portugal, the State Audit Office of Georgia, and the Subsidios al Campo coalition in Mexico.

Day 1: GIFT Fiscal Transparency workshop

GIFT organized four events in connection with the OGP regional meeting, beginning with a GIFT workshop. Juan Pablo Guerrero, GIFT’s Network Director, welcomed all participants to the GIFT workshop on fiscal transparency and public participation, and highlighted the presence at the meeting of representatives of regional country ministries that are promoting the kinds of transparency processes that GIFT is pushing.

Tarick Gracida, the GIFT Technology and Communications Coordinator, presented the document “GIFT: Americas Region of the Open Government Partnership: Mapping Country Fiscal Transparency Commitments”. The paper maps all the fiscal transparency commitments contained in the current Action Plans of 17 OGP member countries in the Americas region against GIFT’s ten High-Level Principles of Fiscal Transparency, Participation and Accountability (HLP) as well as against cross-cutting categories.

Vincent Tophoff of IFACpresented the International Public Sector Financial Accountability Index. The index aims to provide a better understanding ofaccrualaccounting andinternational public sector accounting standards,and to help stimulate public financial management (PFM) reforms.

IPublic Participation in Fiscal Policy

Anja Linder, GIFT Consultant, presented the winners of the GIFT award for Public Participation in Fiscal Policy and Budget Making. The winners included the case of participatory budgeting in the Municipality of Cascais, Portugal, presented by Isabel Xavier; the State Auditor’s office of Georgia (SAOG)’s Budget Monitor, presented by Giorgi Chakvetadze of the SAOG; and the Subsidios al Campo civil society coalition which worked to reform farm subsidies in Mexico, presented by Hector Robles Berlanga.

These experiences all provide an example of public participation which has transformed the relationship between the government and citizens. In the case of Mexico, a civil society-led coalition managed to influence the public debate and ultimately to change a national policy. The BM developed by the SAI of Georgia is a tool which might help the population to discover and report problems such as those of the farm subsidies in Mexico. In Cascais, innovative mechanisms were applied to engage all sectors of the population.

Group discussions on public participation

The group discussion covered questions such as recent innovations in public participation; objectives to fulfill through the implementation of participatory mechanisms; main challenges and main factors helping in the implementation of public participation processes; what factors need to be considered and what measures need to be taken to ensure the inclusion of marginalized and vulnerable groups and to ensure broad participation.

The two groups concluded that it is necessary to start by defining participation and to consider local versus national processes of participation. Citizens are largely uninformed about the benefits of participation, but so is government. There needs to be more information about it and training in how and why to engage the public in the process of public finance management. Training is also needed to ensure a more inclusive participation, including people from marginalized and minority communities. Participatory budgeting can lead to better spending and greater efficiency.

IIBudget transparency portals and open data

Tarick Gracida introduced an afternoon of presentations on transparency portals in the region and framed the discussion through an overview of tendencies and key challenges facing countries in the region. Various countries in the region have developed transparency portals, but is the supply of information ready for the demand?

The presentations included the case of Argentina, where several laws enacted in 2016 and 2017 have strengthened the legal framework for transparency and openness. The third Open Government Plan contains commitments concerning transparency and participation, as well as an ambition to bring the budget closer to citizens.

In the case of Chile, a government representative presented recent advancements in transparency. He also recognized that it would be good for Chile to formally adhere to GIFT in order to continue learning about transparency and participation from the GIFT network. A civil society representative, while recognizing recent advancements, also pointed to the fact that budget information is still scattered in many places, and often in formats that are not easily accessible and that are difficult to interpret.

In El Salvador, the first fiscal transparency portal was launched in 2010. It was improved through collaboration with and learning from the Brazilian experience, and currently, El Salvador is receiving support from GIFT to upgrade its portal. In Mexico, many innovations have been launched to promote transparency and also to engage greater numbers of citizens in the process of budget oversight. Between 2012 and 2017, the number of visits to the Mexican transparency portal grew by over 700%.

The Dominican Republic’s impetus for transparency started with the passage of an Access to Information law and a Participatory Anti-Corruption Initiative (IPAC). They have a transparency portal, and plan to develop a promotional strategy for increasing use of the portal. Uruguay recently launched its fiscal transparency portal, which includes several innovative features, representing a one-stop site, which links performance indicators and policy evaluations with budget allocations. It also links program goals with the SDGs. Guatemala’s transparency portal has evolved significantly and now publishes data in open data format. They wish for support from GIFT in order to rework and modernize their transparency portal.

Group discussions

A second group discussion covered questions such as current country work in terms of transparency; advice for overcoming political and institutional resistance, especially from higher up in the hierarchy; and how can GIFT provide support in these processes?

Day 2:OGP Regional Americas Meeting

IFiscal Transparency working group

The Fiscal Transparency working group roundtable discussion was moderated by Juan Andrés Roeschmann of the Chilean Ministry of Finance. It included presentations by Gabriela Delfino of the Uruguay Office of Planning and Budgeting on the Fiscal Transparency Portal; byVincent Tophoffof IFAC on the Public finance accountability index; by Tarick Gracidafrom the GIFT Coordination Team on the GIFT report “Americas Region of the Open Government Partnership: Mapping Country Fiscal Transparency Commitments”; on Transparency and participation in Argentina by Gustavo Merinoof the Argentina Budget Secretariat; and on the civil society view of the state of budget transparency in Chile by Orlando Rojas or the Observatory of Fiscal Spending.

IIGIFT Award for public participation in fiscal policy

Anja Linder, GIFT Consultant opened the session with a brief introduction about GIFT’s work on public participation in fiscal policy. The GIFT Award for public participation in fiscal policy was then presented to the three winners, who also each briefly presented their participatory experiences.Isabel Xavier presented the case of participatory budgeting in the Municipality of Cascais, Portugal; Giorgi Chakvetadze of the Georgia State Auditor’s Office presented the State Auditor’s Budget Monitor; Hector Robles Berlanga presented the Subsidios al Campo civil society coalition which worked to reform farm subsidies in Mexico.Jesé Gallardo of the Ministry of Finance, El Salvador and Daniel Torres from the Ministry of Finance of the Dominican Republic provided comments on the presentations, followed by a brief Q&A and comments from the public.

Day 3:OGP Regional Americas Meeting

IFiscal Transparency Panel discussion

Juan Pablo Guerrero moderated the discussion among Argentine experts including Luciana Díaz Frers or the Argentine Treasury; Alejandro Gallego of the Secretariat of the Budget within the Treasury; and Natalia Gherardi from the Latin-American Team for Justice and Gender, Argentina.

The panelists discussed questions concerning the end users of information published; who gets affected, and who opposes or imposes resistance on budget transparency efforts; what is new in the Budget transparency being promoted;what are the models that inspire you; what is the role of Budget and fiscal transparency in your open government efforts; what have you planned for ensuring sustainability of your transparency innovations;how to make these reforms transcend and be sustainable for the benefit of citizens.

All the materials used during the GIFT workshop are available here!

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