The State of Budget Transparency Worldwide

We start this issue with an overview from Vivek Ramkumar on the state of global budget transparency as revealed by the International Budget Partnership’s second survey. The findings are generally said to be ‘deplorable’ across the 85 countries surveyed. Perhaps surprisingly, one of the weakest groups of performers are low-income countries that are heavily dependent on donor funding. It might have been expected that the World Bank, IMF and other donors could have wielded their influence in these countries and ensured greater openness. Other countries which are particularly poor in terms of budget transparency are those which are heavily dependent on exports of oil and gas, and countries that have weak democracies. However, things are improving and many countries have improved over the two years since the last survey.

The State of Budget Transparency Worldwide