1

“Demystifying Child Centric Budget Analysis”

Training of Trainers

Organised by

‘Save the Children Sweden, Regional Office for South and Central Asia

Conducted by

HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, New Delhi, India

In

Bangladesh

From 21st – 24th July 2010

REPORT

Report by: Ashish Damle

2

The key lessons identified from this training are… We don’t need to be economists or statisticians to undertake budget analysis. It is

possible with strong human rights perspective, in-depth understanding of issues and common sense.

The Budget Analysis is not only about budgets, it is a tool to understand situation

of children, the constitutional, legal and policy provisions for children and resource allocation as well as resource utilisation for children’s rights.

The budget analysis in our business. It has to be integrated into our programmes.

The way an external person can not analyse budget for our office, similarly consultants can not make budget analysis for us… it is we who have to take efforts and analyse budget, because it is we who know the situation of children better

Just making analysis of budget is not an end in itself. The Budget Analysis that is

not used for advocacy with State or for creating awareness among communities is still a half baked cake…

3

INDEX

No Content Page Number

4

Introduction: Save the Children, Sweden, Regional office for South and Central Asia, organised a training of trainers on ‘Demystifying Child Centric Budget Analysis’, from 21st -24th July 2010, at Dhaka, Bangladesh. Participants from Save the Children offices from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan attended the training programme. The Social Policy Specialist from UNICEF Nepal also attended the training on his own cost. Similarly Civil Society representative from Nepal also attended the training programme. HAQ: Centre for Child Rights facilitated the training. This report explains the process, the outcome and key lessons identified from the training. Day I: 21st July 2010 1. Inauguration:

a. Budget Analysis in the context of Save the Children: Background by Ashish Budget Analysis is not completely new concept for Save the Children. UNCRC monitoring and reporting has always been a key priority area for Save the Children. After reviewing the reports submitted by governments, civil society and the concluding observations provided by Committee, it was realised that Article 4 on resource allocations by the State has been missing from the larger civil society discourse. Though few efforts have been made in past by the civil society organisations to assess the Government performance on resource allocations, it was not sufficient to bring concrete change and influence the Government. The key reason for limited efforts in developing constructive critic on resource allocation as observed by country programmes and partners has been restricted skills and capacity of the civil society. Therefore, in 2008, budget analysis was considered by Save the Children, Regional Office for South for and Central Asia as the key programmatic component for its Regional Strategy for 2009-12. Budget analysis has also been considered as the priority area under the thematic area of Child Rights Governance. This led Save the Children Sweden to expand the scope of its capacity building initiative on Child Centric Budget Analysis to Sri Lanka, Nepal and Afghanistan.

b. Expectations and Objectives The key expectations as shared by the participants are…

Countries like Bangladesh and Afghanistan are largely aid dependent countries. The Institutional donors such as USAID, DIFID, and European Union support major government programmes. In order to influence the Government budgets in these countries, it is therefore important to analyse the budgets of these Donors. Therefore the expectation is to include methods of analysing budgets of big Donors.

Skills to identify specific questions to analyse the Government budgets… To understand the role of civil society in the area of Budget Analysis

5

Since our partners work in the grassroots areas, we need simplified tools and methods for analyse budgets

To understand the training methods on budget analysis To know the skills to analyse the details of the Government budget.

(Including subheads and line items) Advocacy strategies to make use of Budget Analysis Strategies to involve children and child led budget analysis

Most of the expectations as mentioned by the participants were in tune with the training objectives. However expectation related to analysing Donor’s budget has felt unrealistic at this stage, as these budgets are not open and not accessible for public. Expectation related to involve children and strategies for child led budget analysis has also been felt premature at this stage. Budget making and analysis is a tedious process. It is a serious process of number crunching with a strong ideology and political perspective. Involving children in such process and expecting them to provide comments on the budget is a challenging process. The experiments of involving children in budget analysis process in South Africa have been failed, mainly because children’s participation was a project component of these initiatives. The moment financial support of these initiatives was withdrawn as it would at some point, the activities were stopped. Sustainability of such intervention is the key issue. The other activities have been considered as part of the training objectives… The Training Objectives: After this training participants are expected to… Develop an understanding of the concept and process of the Government’s

budget as well as the methods of a Budget for Children (BfC) analysis and the modalities of delivering a training on such issues

Identify and help analyse the key challenge areas with regard to the budget process and a BfC analysis

Make concerted efforts to form a regional level resource group to take the process further in their respective countries

Form advocacy strategies based on such analysis to further support making government more accountable towards realisation of child rights.

c. Introduction

Participants introduced to each other. The list of participants with detailed contact information is enclosed…

6

BUDGET FOR CHIDREN: THE EXPERIENCE OF HAQ: CENTRE FOR CHILD RIGHTS HAQ: Centre for Child Rights, New Delhi, pioneered Budget for Children (BfC) analysis in India in 2001 when it undertook a decadal analysis of allocations and spending for children. Since then it has continued analyzing budgets with a child rights focus at the national as well as the state level. It has established Budget Analysis as a valuable tool for not only monitoring state performance in the implementation of the rights of children and holding the state accountable but also for Child Rights Policy Planning and Programming. HAQ’s experience shows that:

1. It is possible to not only gain acceptance of the concept and methodology but also be included in government’s own budget process.

The Department of Women and Child, Government of India, in 2003 adopted HAQ’s methodology and included a chapter on Child Budgets in its annual Report. Since then they have been doing so regularly.

BfC is part of India’s National Plan of Action 2005 and Eleventh Five Year Plan

In 2007, the Finance Minister in his budget speech announced a separate Expenditure Statement (No.22) for children.

2. It can contribute to the influencing of and creating policies, programmes and plans directed specifically at improvement of children’s lives and better realization of their rights.

3. It can be used to mobilize civil society organisations, movements and public debates based on findings of such analyses.

d. Introduction to HAQ: Centre for Child Rights Participants were introduced to work done by HAQ and their achievements so far in the area of budget analysis

e. Inaugural Speech by Birgit Lundbak, the Country Director, Save the Children

Sweden-Denmark Birgit extended a warm welcome to all participants and resource persons. She said that, “the Budget Analysis, is a very important area of work especially for evidence based advocacy. It helps civil society organisations to build legal and political arguments for advocacy.” She also stressed the fact that global experiences show that common people with basic skills can undertake budget analysis. It is technical and complex document but the same can be analysed with simple methods. Birgit further extended thanks to the regional office of Save the Children Sweden for supporting this initiative.

7

2. Status of Budget Analysis efforts from Countries a. Afghanistan (by Ashish)

It is difficult to have access to consolidated Government budget in Afghanistan. However Budgets pertaining to the Ministries such as Education, Culture and Social Affairs and Disability are accessible. The civil society in Afghanistan is in tremendous need of building capacity not only on Budget Analysis but all related aspects such as advocacy strategies, CRC reporting, Article 4 analysis etc.

b. Pakistan The Pakistan country office of Save the Children Sweden, attempted to undertake budget analysis in 2009 with the help of Consultant. However it was a challenging process, especially communicating our needs to consultant was most challenging part. The focus of this analysis was on health, education and social security. The consultants analysed the trends for last three years under these identified areas and then it was compared with the allocations made in the neighbouring countries. The whole process revealed stunning findings such as the allocation towards education in Pakistan has been reduced over the years. Some programmes for protection and social security have been introduced without proper structures to implement them. The key lessons learnt from the process are…

The budget analysis should be done by the core team of our own programme instead of using consultant

Analysis of budget can not be one time activity but it has to be a continuous process to ensure its impact on policy and resource allocation

c. Sri Lanka

In Sri Lanka there is a coalition of 60 organisations. The coalition undertook an analysis in three stages…

i. Analysis of Children’s Legislation ii. Analysis of budget process

iii. Analysis of allocation made and allocation reached at ground. A consultant was appointed to carry out the work. Based on the analytical outcomes the coalition then started building advocacy messages. However it was felt that all members of coalition should have been familiar with budget analysis process.

d. Bangladesh The budget analysis in Bangladesh as presently carried out by some group is more with economists’ perspective and lack the child rights perspective. The current efforts by some groups on budget analysis lack information on how money flows from top to bottom. However, there are some success stories as well, where the advocacy group on disability, could convince the Government for making special provisions for disability, which later reflected in the budget documents. The key lessons identified from the past exercise are…

Comprehensive analysis of the overall budget is needed to be undertaken over the years to understand trends

8

The approach to the Budget analysis not necessarily be criticising government budgets, but it can also reveal the positive facts and strengthen government intentions that favour realisation of children’s rights

Tracking of allocated funds from top to bottom should also be part of the budget analysis

The budget provisions can further be correlated with the commitments made by the government in National Plan of Action.

e. Nepal

A coalition of NGOs and INGOs is formed in Nepal to support a group of parliamentarians in making significant contributions to the constitution making process. Budget analysis is a key component of this process. The previous budget analysis is carried out with the help of a consultant. However, the budget analysis as done by consultant was complicated and led many gray areas. Though the analysis by itself was methodical, it was difficult to use for advocacy purpose as it was difficult for other group members to understand and internalised. Secondly, the budget analysis should not be restricted to resource allocations, but it should also reveal the sufficiency of the funds and utilisation of the funds at district and village level. It is therefore continuous process and can not be treated as one time activity.

3. Understanding of Government Budget and Budget making process (Part I) a. Group Exercise I: Identification needs of children

Process: All Participants were asked to identify all possible needs for children from their own country. 20 minutes were given for participants for discussion. All the needs were listed on the meta-cards. The needs were then categorised in three broad areas...

Protection related needs Development Related Needs and Health related needs Others

Following are the needs identified by Participants… Protection:

Trafficking Institutional Mechanisms Psychological support Working Children Child Protection (Government

Structures) Child Labour Conflict Affected children Disabled

Trafficking Shelter Support Psychological Support Children in Emergency Children engaged in sex work Child Sensitive social protection Street Children Rehabilitation

9

Development: Parental Care Vocational Skills Schools Teachers Education Programme for street

children Quality Education

Health: Water & Sanitation Nutrition (Feeding) Health (Child Immnunisation) HIV/AIDS Child health Basic Health Unit Maternal and nutritional health

Others: Livelihood Options Budgetary allocations to all age groups Budget Allocations for Child Welfare Department

It was realised during the discussions on the listed needs that these needs are like a broad wish list. If articulated in same manner, it is difficult to allocate resources against these needs. When money is allocated to the needs, they should be very specific.

Lessons Identified:

Identification of needs in a very specific form and substantiated by the

research is a first important step towards budget analysis.

b. Group Exercise II: Specifying Children’s Needs Process: Participants were asked to further build upon the needs identified by them. They were asked to specify the list as if they are the finance ministers of their own country and they have to make budget for these needs… Following is the list of specified needs as identified by participants… Protection:

Budget increase by 20% (95 million) to strengthen Juvenile Justice System Juvenile bench is established in each district court Free legal aid Borstal Institute established in four regional centres

Budget allocated to establish “transit homes’ in 4 regional centres. The regional child welfare board will mange the transit homes

Vocational training Counselling Non-Formal Education

10

Realising child poverty, malnutrition and child care need government allocated 4 billion rs. To provide child grant rs. 300 per child per month. Village development Committee has to implement the grant, given cash to mothers

Development: Primary Education for Children in age group of 6 and 10

Schools Construction Play ground Play materials Separate toilets

Water supply Furniture Electricity

Teacher

Salary Recruitment

Training Number of trainings Teaching aid Types of training

Teaching module/ curriculum

Children

Text books/ stationary

Uniform

School meals Transport

School Health

Disability Regular Health Check ups Monitoring and Supervision Extra Curriculum

Visits/ picnic Games/

competitions

Annual functions School library (teachers/

books/ furniture)

School Management Committee/ Parent-Teachers Association Admin cost

Health: Water and Sanitation

Increase drinking water facilities

Water purification plant

Support to build toilets in villages Awareness eg. Wash hand campaign Drainage line construction

HIV/AIDS

Awareness Parents- Children Survivors’ stakeholders

Free Health service to survivors (Medication) Rehabilitation programme – Livelihood support

Nutrition Parental Education Food supplement to malnourished

children

11

Tracking to child support

School feeding programme Awareness campaign

Support to Pregnant women

Immunisation

Massive campaign Access: Provide service in villages Awareness to parents

Maternal Child Health

Promote midwives (trained health professionals) Promotional activities to give birth in health institution or with trained person Increased facilities in govt hospitals New born-Toolkits promotion

The specified needs identified by the participants are further discussed to understand the priorities. It was explained by the facilitators that any budget is also an exercise of making priorities. It is an exercise of distributing the limited resource to meet multiple needs.

Lessons Identified:

Priorities are determined by perspective and political agenda. Therefore

while setting priorities we need to take an ideological stand. We have to develop specific, authentic and legally correct arguments

while developing the arguments. The subjective concepts such as child friendly school, etc should be defined clearly prior to analysis

We have to have comprehensive understanding of law, policy,

constitution, political manifestos, international instruments, and most importantly authentic situation analysis of children of our country to justify children’s needs…

12

4. Understanding of Government Budget and Budget making process (Part II) The facilitators explained the budget process as followed in India. They explained that the budget making process is important to understand and analyse because it unfolds roles of different stakeholders. It helps understanding the influencing parties and thereby builds our perspective on how the final budget would look like. The Budget making process of the government is also important to understand for advocacy and lobbying purpose. The facilitators further explained the myths around the government budget making. During the discussion with participants it was revealed that in some countries the overall budget making process and also the key documents pertaining to budget are not made available to all people. The overall budgeting exercise of the government goes into four stages…

a. Budget formulation b. Enactment c. Execution and d. Auditing and assessment

Participants were given an exercise to discuss find out and explained the budget making process in their respective countries…

13

Day II: 22nd July 2010 5. Recap and Feedback on Day I Participants explained the areas of discussion and key learning from the previous day.

a. Feedback given by participants on methodology: i. More explanation is needed on budget making process

ii. Flexibility is very important and appreciated iii. It is a small group and therefore more brainstorming is helping solving key issues

b. Response from the Facilitators:

While explaining ‘priorities’ the facilitators gave two examples from local news paper. The first one was about doubling of US internal security budget post Iraq War. This means that the money would be extracted from some other budgets and generally they are from social sector. The second news was related to the proposed bill in Bangladesh to prevent violence against children and women. The facilitators said that, ‘when you have one law for both women and children, you favour neither; because the systems and human resource required to ensure enforcement of law would be different and therefore it has to have separate financial resource allocation. We need to be aware of many such issues evolving around us while working on budget analysis.’ Facilitators then provided more explanation on budget making process.

6. Country presentations on their respective budget making process…

Participants presented the budget making process from their respective countries. The presentations are as follows… Nepal: Step I: Budget discussion at VDC (Village Development Committee) / Municipal level.

Approved by VDC/ Municipal Councils Step II: Area level discussion. Submitted to the District Development Committee Step III: Budget Formulation/ Compilation on the basis of VDCs/ Municipal Councils’ budget submissions Step IV: District budget discussion/ approval by the district councils Step V: District Councils submits approved budgets to concerned ministries Step VI: District line agencies also submit sectoral budget to sectoral Ministries Step VII: National Planning Commission sends guideline and budget ceiling to Ministries Step VIII: Ministries prepare their Budget and submit to the planning commission Step IX: Budget discussion at the planning commission, approved budget submitted to the finance ministry

14

Finance Ministry initiate the process and Planning by June

Inputs from Different (41) Ministries and Departments

Dept of National Planning

Finance Minister and Deputy Minister

All Depts under 41 Ministries

Finance Ministry + Donor Discussion (Bilateral)

Ministerial Discussions based on policies

Vision for Future

National Plan of Action (2010-2014)

MDG, EFA

National Nutrition Policy

National Policy on disability, ECCD, Education

Coastal Reservations

Poverty reduction strategy Draft Budget + Estimates

Debate at Parliament in 225 MPs

Appropriation Bill/ Act by (Nov/ Dec)

Step X: Budget Allocation into various headings/ resources/ Finalisation Step XI: Preparation of Red book (Budget books) part I and Part II Step XII: Presentation of budget in the parliament by the finance Minister Step XIII: Discussion and approval by the Parliament Pakistan:

Sri Lanka (To be confirmed by Participants)

15

The facilitators further explained importance of understanding the budget procedure. They explained that Budget analysis for children is not only number crunching exercise. It is an exercise of applying our perspective on human rights and children’s rights in the field of justifiable resource allocation. It is also about taking stands and making loud and clear opinions. The facilitators stressed the point that UN conventions, MDG, World Fit for Children and many such bilateral or multilateral conventions can be used as critical guidelines in the process of budget analysis and advocacy thereafter, however none of them should become a mere obsession. While making clear opinion on the process of child participation facilitators helped participants to reflect on amount of efforts made on empowering children who are participating on adult agenda. An ability to observe matter critically helps developing skills in budget analysis. Lessons identified from the session are as follows:

Lessons Identified:

• Budget analysis is only one of the tools that can help in advocacy for realisation of child rights.

• It cannot be treated as one time activity or project. It is continuous process that demands commitment, dedication and perseverance

• To be powerful and effective, the analysis of budgets has to be combined with information and knowledge of laws, policies and combined with and strong and well thought-out effective strategy.

• Please ensure that you are not re-inventing the wheel... It is important to study all existing resources! There may be others who have attempted similar exercises.

• Involving children can be a part/ or option – but is not essential for credible budget analysis from a human rights perspective. Child participation is desirable, a value... but let us not make it fetish...

7. Analysing budget for children… With what perspective we analyse budget is the key to budget analysis for children. It is important for us to know how resources are allocated, whether they are adequate, are the allocated resources getting properly utilised, whether they are relevant to the context and issues faced by children? These and many such questions are important for us to flag before heading towards budget analysis. The facilitators explained the story of HAQ, when they commenced the budget analysis 10 years back. The HAQ approach towards budget analysis was not merely understanding the proportion of allocation and spending by the Indian government on children, but it was mainly to use it as one of the tools to realise rights of children in country. This perspective of HAQ enabled them in later years to expand the scope of their analysis to analysing parliamentary questions and the judiciary as well. While undertaking the work of analysis, the need was expressed by the children and vulnerable communities that they are lacking

16

the legal support to avail justice. It was then HAQ decided to provide legal support to these children as well. The story of HAQ provided key lessons to the civil society organisations across the region such as…

It is important not to underestimate intent of government budgets and the potentials of executives involved in making it

It is important to develop a moral argument into a legal argument that is substantiated by the evidence. It is also called evidence based advocacy.

It is important to be clear on our ideology and political stand 8. Budget Documents The facilitators commenced the session explaining the first step that is to understand all documents required for the budget analysis. There are mainly three types of documents…

1. Supplementary documents: These documents are important to build perspective and also to analyse the key issues before analysing the budgets. These documents include…

a. Political manifestos (Especially of the ruling and opposition parties) b. The Constitution of the country c. The key policy documents such as education policy, health policy, Labour

policy etc d. The laws pertaining to children e. The welfare schemes pertaining to children f. The National Planning documents such as five year plan, National Plan of

action etc g. The State reports to UNCRC Committee, CEDAW committee and to other

International Human Rights bodies h. The concluding observations made by the committee i. The International conventions that are ratified by the State including UNCRC

and other human rights instruments j. The regional conventions that are ratified by the State parties (SAARC

conventions) k. International reports on the situation of human rights and children’s rights in

country such as reports from UN organisations, from Human Rights watch, Amnesty International etc..

2. The Budget Documents: The second type of documents are actual budget documents, those reflect the allocations and spending of the government. These include the following… (Some of the documents may vary from country to country and participants were asked to work out the available documents related to budget from their own country.)

a. The budget Speech b. Budget in brief c. Consolidated funds and receipts d. Annual Financial Statement

17

Lessons Identified: • Our analysing skills are important to pick up what is

most relevant for us from the large scale of documents.

• It is important to have an in-depth understanding of the current situation of child rights and politics in country.

• Civil and political rights are as important as Social-Economical and Cultural Rights. These documents should be analysed from both perspectives.

• Prior to begin with analysing these documents a research design should be clear. Following questions should be cleared … What were the resources being invested by the

government for children? Do the allocations match the needs and rights of

the children? What proportion of the allocation was actually

spent? How did it match the outcomes in terms of

indicators for children? More importantly, are the resources being allocated and spent “adequate”?

What is the Performance of programmes at the implementation level vis-a-vis allocation?

• Budget analysis needs immense patience and good quality time

e. Demands for Grants and appropriation (Development and Non-development))

f. The Annual reports from the concern Ministries g. The budget (It should be comprehensive. In some countries only budget in

brief is made available to general public. However this is an issue for advocacy to enable government to make comprehensive budget documents available for public)

h. The appropriation bill/act i. The audited reports by accountant general (if any) j. Economic Survey k. Parliament debate (Questions raised pertaining to children’s rights)

3. Strategic Documents: These documents help developing strategy for advocacy and lobbying and taking action based on the budget analysis. These documents explain the priorities and action plans of key stakeholders who can be helpful in lobbying and can influence the Government. These documents include…

a. The Donors annual reports and Plans (Bilateral Donors such as DFID, SIDA, AUSAID and UN organisations)

b. The World Bank, Asian Development Bank and other international financial institutions

c. The Large corporate having massive investments in country d. The Media reports pertaining to

performance of welfare schemes and implementation of laws

e. INGO annual reports and plans etc. Collecting these documents, archiving them over the period of time and highlighting the key areas of relevance are big and important tasks for the budget analysis. Without these documents in hand it is impossible to go further in analysing budgets. Though many documents are available on internet not all are available. Special efforts are needed to collect these documents from government press or from member of parliaments. Since the list of document is quite long and the size of these documents is also fat, it is certain that budget analysis is not a one person’s job. It is a team work. A team should have balance expertise from varied field such as legal and political analysis, economical analysis, social analysis etc. It is also clear from the understanding of the documents that the budget analysis can not be a one time activity. It has to be treated as an integral component of programme and should be accepted as an ongoing process.

18

Day III: 23rd July 2010 9. Recap and Feedback

Participants shared the key lessons learnt from the previous day. Some of the participants also shared those examples from HAQ’s experience and also from other initiatives from other parts of world help in understanding the key concepts. These examples can be more elaborated in the toolkit.

10. The HAQ Story…

The key objective of this session was to make participant realise that in order to make budget analysis one doesn’t need be an economist. The Facilitators shared the story of HAQ, on how they began the work on budget analysis. The key message that has been delivered from the story of HAQ was that only hard work and persistent efforts to undertake each and everything related to budget analysis by self is the only and certain way of achieving expertise in this area. The HAQ team initially when learnt the art of budget analysis undertook every step such as collecting documents, highlighting important components, marking of the difficult terminologies, understanding these concepts from experts, understanding of numbers, experimenting with different ways of analysing these numbers and drafting an analytical reports did by themselves. This hard work helped HAQ to develop their skills and expertise in the area of budget analysis…

11. Working on Budget Analysis…

Participants were asked to start working on budget documents from their own country. Participants followed every step as explained in the toolkit and worked on the budget documents for whole day. They even entered data and did a preliminary analysis on some specific components. After their work on budget documents they presented the challenges faced by them. Budget analysis is no doubt a challenging and demanding work. The key challenges identified at different levels are as follows: The challenges:

Budget Documents Not all budget documents are available to all people. It is a challenge to access all the relevant documents.

Identification of Programmes Budget is not necessarily developed to highlight a particular community. Therefore it is not an easy task to identify the most relevant programmes for children in the consolidated budget. Special efforts are required to scan all ministries and departments to understand what is there for children. While explaining this point the facilitator gave an example from Indian budget. When the government made a separate note for children’s share in the budget (This was one of the achievement of HAQ’s effort) they quoted some of the programmes from department of post. Evan in the Ministry of defence some expenditure is also meant for children. Identifying such small but significant programmes and categorised them into different sectors such as development,

19

protection, health and education (This is the way HAQ categorised programmes, but it can be different in other countries) is a challenging task.

Data Entry Apparently most of the research scholars and professionals perceive that data entry is a specialised task and should be done by other people. This is not true. Data entry is as critical as doing an intellectual analysis. It is important that he same team members enter data who are analysing it. However, operating on an excel sheet or any specialised software, making columns and entering numbers is also not less challenging area, especially because there is no single number that denominates the expenditure for children in a particular area. One has to understand specifically what is meant for children in each of the broad programme and identify what needs to be entered with valid justification attached to each entry. This needs analytical skills and strong perspective on child rights.

Analysis Analysis of the data is another challenge. Allocation, revisions and utilisation of funds are three components that are considered for the basic analysis. This is compounded with changes in the situation of children and the context. For example the trend may show that the Government has increased their allocation on early childhood care programme, but while analysing figures and before making a conclusion one needs to look at the inflation, the growing number of beneficiaries, the specific expenditure line item needs to look at. Analysis is made complex by number of such variables and therefore it is also a challenge.

Presentation A good budget analysis many time fail to create a civil society movement or an impact on media because it is not presented in simple way. Analysis can be technical but the outcome report should be simple though specific and correct. Managing the balance between technical details of the budget analysis and demand of simplistic and short presentations for civil society is a challenge.

12. Advocacy on Budget analysis: Global Perspective by Birgit Lundbak Birgit Lundbak, the Country Director of Save the Children Sweden-Denmark, has an extensive experience in Africa and other regions particularly on budget analysis work. She added extraordinary value to the whole workshop by bringing in the global perspective on budget analysis. She stressed that the civil society organisations often undertake advocacy initiatives based on moral arguments, however in the world of imbalance resources and insufficient political will evidence based advocacy works better than mere moral arguments. According to her the budget analysis helps in developing clear perspective and a strong argument for advocacy. She further substantiated her point by quoting examples from Africa. The second important point she stressed upon was that one doesn’t need be an economist to undertake budget analysis. It is not as complex as it appears. One only needs to work to get over the fear against specific terminologies and numbers. She further explained the role of civil society organisations pertaining to budget analysis.

20

She said that civil society organisations working in different areas such as health, education, child labour etc. can adapt the budget analysis skills and apply it to their priority areas. Identification of an issue is thus very important. She explained that we must choose what we can digest and what we can deliver. She gave several examples from Africa and other regions to make participant understand the work on budget analysis in other regions…. She extended her gratitude towards participants and the facilitators and also to towards regional office for organising this workshop.

The issue for brainstorming: Some of the participants raised an important question after the session by Birgit. The asked isn’t it right to develop an alternative budget where we as civil society provide solutions for government to consider while analysing budgets. So that we not only say what is a gap but we also provide solutions to fill the gap? There are two approaches to deal with this question. Both were discussed in the group. It is appropriate to report both the approaches here…

Approach I Yes! If we are talking about problems we must provide alternatives or solutions to resolve the problems. No government in the world is intentionally keeping low allocations towards children. In most of the cases even they lack capacities. Civil Society can play a complementary role in presenting alternatives to them. The alternative budgets would also help civil society understand the limitations of the government. It can help building positive environment and will build a strong mutual cooperation. Only criticising is not enough. The critique is constructive when it helps other to improve…

Approach II The government is the primary duty bearer. They have made certain commitments in constitution, in their political manifesto and in the UN conventions. The budget of any government is a political document as well. It reflects the political ambitions and priorities of the ruling party. The alternative budgets are neutral. For example an alternative budget will provide a recommendation to reduce defence budget and add more to social security. Obviously we would like to buy more books than bombs. However, on political grounds such recommendations won’t work, they won’t be popular to attract mass appeal. Hence instead of giving alternatives to government (unless government asks for it) it’s better to stick to children’s situation in country and what it needs to have a positive change.

The discussion on these two approaches led to an interesting conclusion…

How do we frame an advocacy argument holds immense importance. Stressing upon the situation of children and what they deserve to have positive change in their situation is a good way to frame the advocacy argument. This helps us being stick to our programme area. We can not comment on the allocations

21

(though they are questionable to us) against defence, home or other such areas as they are sensitive areas and can easily distract the attention from our key focus areas…

No approach is completely wrong or right. One has to choose it based on the socio-political situation in the country. At times it is possible to work with government and develop a budget together with understanding of other limitations.

22

Day IV: 24th July 2010

13. Lessons identified by participants from previous day Participants shared their experience on working on the budget documents. Following are the some of the common reflections shared by participants…

The more you get familiar with budget language, basic concepts and the numbers the analytical work becomes interesting. It provides so much of new information which is certainly useful for our ongoing programmes

There is quite a lot similarity between Save the Children’s internal planning and budging procedures and the government budgeting procedures except the scale and the terminologies used in both processes.

While working on the budget documents, a strong need was perceived to be well worse with the policies, laws, schemes and national planning. The supplementary documents thus hold immense importance to budget analysis work

Unless we have comprehensive budget documents it is impossible to make a critical and worthy analysis

In order to ensure building our capacity building one such workshop is certainly useful but not enough. We have to spend every day some time to work on the budget documents to bring further clarity and expertise in the subject.

It is important for us as a group to meet again, may be after six months to refresh our learning, exchange information and establish this as Save the Children’s working group within region on budget analysis for children

The role that HAQ can play in facilitating the budget analysis work in the region is inevitable. We will need to refer HAQ as resource agency in future to keep enhancing our skills and perspective.

The budget analysis work has all potentials for us to build our perspective on programme and also make an internal advocacy that can influence our (Save the Children’s) own planning and strategy.

It is important to refer UNCRC however we need to objectively analyse all such conventions without getting obsessed to them…

Participants also identified key lessons as follows…. Sri Lanka a. Budget analysis is a long process and it needs consistency b. It is important for us (Participants) to undertake the detail budget analysis on our

own before we roll out further capacity building of civil society organisations. Bangladesh c. Identification of programmes and specific budget components for children is most

critical step in the budget analysis. We need to work on this aspect to build our capacities.

d. We should start advocacy around making all budget documents available for people.

23

e. Advocacy strategy based on the budget analysis is very important and needs to be planned before building capacities of civil society organisations.

f. Special internal exercise on understanding Govt planning process is needed to be done prior to build capacities of civil society organisations.

Nepal g. We understand budget analysis is a team work; it has to be done by ourselves. It is

also important for us to understand the role of each member in the budget analysis process

h. Though the budget analysis process in its true spirit can be complex; however we can certainly start with simple steps and gradually we can achieve the expertise to deal with more complex phenomenon.

Pakistan i. The budget analysis is not only about numbers and allocations and utilisations. It

tells the story of how children are subjected to the government’s political agenda. Therefore, it needs ‘out of the box’ thinking and that can not be done by a consultant for us. It is our understanding of situation of children and our perspective on their rights determine the way we analyse the budget.

14. Presenting budget analysis….

The facilitators then moved on to next session on presenting the budget analysis. They explained that the objective of the whole initiative on the budget analysis should be very clear from the beginning. This clarity helps us reaching right people in right way. The facilitators then showed different outcome products developed by them on the same budget analysis. The products included fat and technical book on the budget analysis, a leaflet and small booklet. They produced one pager leaflet for Member of Parliament to raise relevant questions pertaining to budget, considering the time limitations of such people. They developed small booklet for media to highlight the key facts and they also developed the whole analysis in the form of book for research institutes, civil society organisations to take the advocacy work further. It is important how we present the analysis for different people with different objectives. We should be able to derive key messages out of the whole analysis that are relevant to our programme and the situation analysis of children in country. For example a message such as “We assure only 70 paise out of every 100Rs for the health of children and can spend only 40 paise out of total allocation” This and such messages are helpful for common people to understand the gravity of the issue.

15. Advocacy and Strategising based on budget analysis The session on presenting budget analysis gradually shifted to developing advocacy and strategising based on the analysis. The facilitators explained that confrontation is not always a good strategy. There are ways in which we can approach the key people in the government system. She gave an example of her meeting with the ex-finance minister of India. In such high profile meeting we can get hardy two or three minutes to present

24

our issue. In such time the solid information, use of government’s own data and precise communication works. The facilitators further explained that we have to be patient and clear on our understanding of achieving success milestones. Advocacy is an ongoing process, but it goes through various stages and we should be able to recognise success at each level. This helps in sustaining our motivation and action. She gave an example from HAQ’s experience... Vision for HAQ has always been “Better and more allocation and expenditure for Children”. However, keeping only this vision in mind, if one analyses the work done by HAQ it may be disappointing because the situation on allocation and expenditure has not changed drastically. In order to understand the success achieved by HAQ one needs to take the deeper look. HAQ began their work with a question mark, question mark on the resource allocations as well as question mark on their own capacities and skills. They developed their own skills at first place. It took quite some time for HAQ to receive an acceptance to their concept and method of analysis. It was second stage of success. Thirdly they achieved inclusion of their work in the National Plan of Action and later at fourth stage in the 11th five year plan of Govt. of India. Recently in the last budget they achieved an inclusion of a page in expenditure budget by the Government. The raining programme concluded with evaluation and closing remarks from Mr. Holger Lehmann, the Country Programme Manger of Save the Children Sweden-Denmark.

25

Annexure I: Evaluation Key reflections shared by the participants are…

After attending this workshop we have gained confidence that we can analyse the Government budgets

I was selected for this workshop because I had some experience and exposure to

analyse the education budget. I have now understood that Child Centric Budget Analysis is more than that. I am motivated to take it further in more detail manner.

Budget analysis was an activity for us but now it is an initiative. We thought,

budget analysis is purely a technical subject meant for specialised people, but after attending workshop and after gaining conceptual understanding we have confidence to do it ourselves.

We as a group (of participants of the workshop) should exchange information

and our experiences to continue learning.

Methodology of the workshop was simple and useful. This workshop was an opportunity for us to overcome our fear against technical language of the budget, the numbers and key concepts. We have achieved it…

The Regional office of Save the Children Sweden has an opportunity to take this

group further as a regional working group on budget analysis and continue this work in the new set up of IPU.

The budget analysis for children is our business. We can not be dependent upon

consultants to undertake it. It is we who know the situation of children in our country, it is we who have rights based perspective and therefore it is we who should undertake the Budget analysis.

I had confusion on some parts of budget analysis. It was created by me. The

facilitation was simple and methodological. Now I am clear on were to start and how to progress…

26

The analysis of the evaluation forms reveals that…

1. Logistics and Administration V.Good Good Average Poor

Hotel Stay 60% 40%

Lunch 70% 25% 5%

Training Venue 50% 45% 5%

Overall Hospitality 76% 26%

2. Training Content

Relevance with Country Programme

82% 15% 3%

Organising of sessions 5% 78% 17%

Material 3% 87% 10%

3. Training Methodology

Relevance 46% 50% 4%

Participatory 3% 83% 14%

Brainstorming 6% 66% 38%

Opportunity to share 80% 14% 6%

V.

Complex Complex Simple

Extreme simple

4. Level of content understanding (Methodology)

4% 96%

% of participants rated components of workshop

Elaborative evaluation:

1. Key learning that you have gained from workshop… a. Step by Step approach on budget for children b. Simple methodology to analyse budget for children c. Basic concepts on budget analysis d. Relevance of supplementary documents with budget analysis e. Method for making complex documents simple to understand f. We have to have firm ideology, human rights based approach for analysing

budget g. Budget analysis is a team work h. Child rights based approach to budget analysis i. Budget analysis is a significant tool for child rights activism j. Importance of building rights based legal arguments rather than moral

arguments for advocacy

2. How do you think you will take this process further in your own country? a. Orientation to other staff and partners b. Piloting with local government institution c. Introduced in next country plan d. We will introduce budget analysis concept to a coalition of NGOs involved in

UNCRC Monitoring

27

e. It has been included into CRG thematic document for 2011-2015 f. We will plan to strengthen Budget analysis work

3. What would you suggest SCS RO to improve this process and build on it?

a. Technical support to country programmes b. Continuous follow up and support c. Ensure exchange of information and functioning of this work group d. Financial support to country programme e. Follow up training/ refreshers course on budget analysis for working group

after six months f. Support in introducing budget analysis activities in new IPU set up

4. Any other suggestions…

There were no significant suggestions other than points mentioned above.

28

Annexure II: Appreciation and Recommendations on draft toolkit on child centric budget analysis All participants appreciated the draft toolkit. They found it simple to understand and easy to follow guide. However, few recommendations were shared by participants to make it more usable and reader friendly. The recommendations are as follows:

1. The need for ideology, the human rights based approach, need of having comprehensive understanding of UN Conventions needs to be specifically mention as some prerequisites for budget analysis work. This can also be elaborated with examples from HAQ’s experience.

2. Some more examples, case studies can be included to understand some key concepts

3. The toolkit can include some exercises for readers to undertake pertaining to each step. This will help readers to exercise the toolkit and learn from their own experience.

4. Illustrations, pictures and good design will break monotony while reading. 5. The section on presenting budget analysis and advocacy planning based on

budget analysis needs further elaboration especially on do’s and don’ts… 6. Precautionary measures can be introduced in the section step-by-step

approach. (Things to be kept in mind such as situation of children, political context etc.)

29

Annexure III: Programme Agenda

Training Objectives After this training participants are expected to…

1. Develop an understanding of the concept and process of the Government’s budget as well as the methods of a Budget for Children (BfC) analysis and the modalities of delivering a training on such issues

2. Identify and help analyse the key challenge areas with regard to the budget process and a BfC analysis

3. Make concerted efforts to form a regional level resource group to take the process further in their respective countries

4. Form advocacy strategies based on such analysis to further support making government more accountable towards realisation of child rights.

Training Content Day I: 21st July 2010, Wednesday

Time Content

09:00 – 09:15 Welcome address by Ms. Birgit Lundbak, The Country Director, Save the Children, Sweden-Denmark

09:15 – 10:00 Introduction to the training programme:

10:00 – 11:00 Budget Analysis experiences from different countries…

11:00 – 11:15 Tea Break

11:15 – 13:00 Understanding of Government Budget and Budget making process

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 16:00 Understanding of Government Budget and Budget making process (Continue)

16:00 – 16:30 Tea Break

16:30 – 17:00 Addressing the key issues…

Day II: 22nd July 2010, Thursday

Time Content

09:00 – 09:30 Recap and Feedback

09:30 – 11:00 Analyzing budget for children…

11:00 – 11:15 Tea Break

11:15 – 13:00 Making budget analysis for Children- Step by Step…

30

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 16:00 Making budget analysis for Children- Step by Step (Continue)…

16:00 – 16:30 Tea Break

16:30 – 17:00 Addressing key issues

Day III: 23rd July 2010, Friday

Time Content

09:00 – 09:30 Recap and Feedback

09:30 – 11:00 Making budget analysis for children (Continue)…

11:00 – 11:15 Tea Break

11:15 – 12:00 Making budget analysis for children (Continue)…

12:00 – 14:00 Friday Prayer and Lunch

14:00 – 15:30 Data analysis by Participants

15:30 – 16:00 Tea Break

16:00 – 17:00 Presentations by Participants

17:00 – 17:30 Addressing key issues

Day IV: 24th July 2010, Saturday

Time Content

09:00 – 09:30 Recap and Feedback

09:30 – 11:00 Linking Budget for Children Analysis to Advocacy

11:00 – 11:15 Tea Break

11:15 – 13:00 Roll out planning

13:00 – 14:00 Lunch

14:00 – 14:30 Evaluation of Training

14:30 – 15:00 Formal Closure of the programme

31

Annexure IV: Roll out plans Nepal:

# Activities Date Responsibility Support Needed

Phase I

1. Half day orientation to working group (CZOP +Consortium)

Aug 2nd

Week Tarak (CWIN) Shova & Thakur

2. Orientation to concerned staff August 1st

Week Tarak/ Shova

3. Review of concept paper / ToR on Child Centric Budgeting

August Shova/Thakur/ Tarak

4. Formation of advisory committee August CZOP

5. Planning workshop (1Day) September CZOP Facilitation Shova & Tarak

6. Analysis of National Budget Sept-Dec To be Decided HAQ

Second Phase

7. Analysing District level budget performance / Spending

2011 To be decided Ashish / Save regional Office

Bangladesh

# Activities Date Responsibility

1. Relevant documents collection By 30th

July Core group (Mehmood, Rumi, Nishat, Kabir, Mustafis, Silvea, Rana)

2. Core group will do the remaining task/ work

By 10 Aug 2010 “

3. Design orientation outline By 30th

Aug 2010 “

4. Orientation for selected groups/ organisations

By 20th

Sept 2010 “

5. Planning on piloting on budget analysis By 30th

Oct. 2010 “

6. Piloting on budget analysis (2/3 union) November onwards “

Sri Lanka

# Activities Date Responsibility

1. Orientation to staff and colleagues August Krishna & Genova

2. Collection of all relevant budget documents

August Krishna & Genova

3. Internal Budget Analysis August-September Krishna & Genova

4. Developing orientation programme outline

September Krishna & Genova

5. Selection of civil society organisations September Krishna & Genova

6. Orientation programme for selected civil society organisations

October 3rd

week Ashish, Krishna & Genova

7. Formation of a working group within civil society coalition on budget analysis

October Krishna & Genova

8.

32

Pakistan

Afghanistan participants could not attend the workshop due to not getting visa in time. However they will conduct country level orientation programme with help from Ashish and Rana in September 2010.

S.no

Activities

Process

Time frame

1. Orientation of SCS staff members

Development of material

Orientation of core Programme team

Mid Aug

2. Child rights Budget analysis 2010-2011

Collection of documents from GOP

Coordination with Government line department s

Coordination with leading child focused organizations

Identification of Government line department/ministries/divisions

Development of TORs (through consultative process)

Getting the detailed Budget copy

Identification of Child focused programmes & allocations

Data punching

Analysis of data

Identification of key advocacy issues

Planning workshop for the development of Advocacy strategy

Development of advocacy strategy

Implementation & monitoring of advocacy plan

Development of IEC material

Follow up and Evaluation

Starting from Sep till Feb March April

3. Orientation of Child focused organizations

Customization of Beginners’ Guide according to Country Context

Development of material

Arrangement of workshop

Formation of National work group

Implementation of advocacy plan

Follow up and evaluation

Last week of October 2010

33

Annexure V: Participants’ List

1. Enakshi Ganguly (Resource Person) Co-Director HAQ: Centre for Child Rights B-1/2, Malwiya Nagar, New Delhi-110017 India enakshi@haqcrc.org Ph. +91-(0)11-26673599

2. Ms. Paromita Shastri (Resource Person) Co-Director HAQ: Centre for Child Rights B-1/2, Malwiya Nagar, New Delhi-110017 India paromita@haqcrc.org Ph. +91-(0)11-26673599

3. Mrs. Olivet Genova Alfred Save the Children 58 A, Horton Place, Colombo- 07 Sri Lanka Genova@savethechildren.lk Ph. +94-(0)11- 2672668

4. Mr. Krishnakumar Palanisamy Save the Children 58 A, Horton Place, Colombo- 07 Sri Lanka Krishnakumar@savethechildren.lk Ph. +94-(0)11-2672672

5. Mr. Khuram Gondal Save the Children Sweden House 10, Street 17, F-8/3, Islamabad, Pakistan khuramg@sca.savethechildren.se Ph. +92-51-2287066-9

6. Ms. Nadia Noor Save the Children Sweden House 10, Street 17, F-8/3, Islamabad, Pakistan nadian@sca.savethechildren.se Ph. +92-51-2287066-9

7. Mr. Ashish Damle Save the Children, Sweden Regional office for South and Central Asia 6th Floor, JDA Complex, Bag Durbar, Sundhara, Kathmandu Nepal ashishd@sca.savethechildren.se Ph. +977-9851086362

8. Mr. Thakur Nath Dhakal UNICEF-Nepal PO Box- 1187 Kathmandu, Nepal tdhakal@unicef.org +977-9851010224

9. Ms. Shova Lama (Moktan) Save the Children GPO Box 3394 Bag Durbar, Kathmandu Nepal shova.lama@savethechildren.org.np +977-9851074297

10. Mr. Tarak Dhital CWIN-Nepal PO Box-4374, Ravibhawan, Kathmandu, Nepal www.cwin.org.np tarakdhital@gmail.com +977-9851049887

34

11. Mr. Tayub Tazammel Rana Save the Children, Sweden-Denmark House no. 9, Road 16, Gulshan-1 Dhaka-1213 tayub@scsd-bd.org +880-(0)1-816736682

12. Mr. Rahmatullah Rumi Save the Children, Sweden-Denmark House no. 9, Road 16, Gulshan-1 Dhaka-1213 rumi@scsd-bd.org

13. Ms. Silvea Rodrigues Save the Children, Sweden-Denmark House no. 9, Road 16, Gulshan-1 Dhaka-1213 silvea@scsd-bd.org

14. Ms. Nishat Afroj Mirza Save the Children, Sweden-Denmark House no. 9, Road 16, Gulshan-1 Dhaka-1213 nishat@scsd-bd.org

15. Mr. A.H.M. Lutful Kabir Save the Children, Sweden-Denmark House no. 9, Road 16, Gulshan-1 Dhaka-1213 kabir@scsd-bd.org

16. Md. Mostafizur Rahman Save the Children, Sweden-Denmark House no. 9, Road 16, Gulshan-1 Dhaka-1213 mostafiz@scsd-bd.org

17. Enakshi Ganguly Co-Director HAQ: Centre for Child Rights B-1/2, Malwiya Nagar, New Delhi-110017 India enakshi@haqcrc.org Ph. +91-(0)11-26673599

18. Ms. Paromita Shastri Co-Director HAQ: Centre for Child Rights B-1/2, Malwiya Nagar, New Delhi-110017 India paromita@haqcrc.org Ph. +91-(0)11-26673599