The Making the budget work for Ghana project was implemented under the World Bank’s Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA) initiative with a total project budget of $850,000. The Project sought to address governance challenges that affect the effective delivery of basic education and health services in poor areas in Ghana. Some of these challenges comprised budget planning which was inconsistent with execution as well as weak monitoring systems that did not provide timely information on impact of expenditure.
Secondly, citizens’ participation (national, regional, and district level) during the budget planning and execution phases was limited and/ or not well coordinated. Few people had participated in governance and were aware of allocation and expenditure priorities in the enacted budget. Moreover, there was a dearth of adequate mechanisms to exact Government actions in response to citizen’s feedback on budget priorities that have the potential to improve access and quality of public service delivery.
The project adopted a collaborative approach to implementation and fostered constructive engagement and ownership of the project at district, regional and national levels.
Key Results/Achievements:
Outcome 1: PME network and DCMC members noting increased budget awareness and capacity for analysis by end of project
- Budget awareness among PME members and their capacity for budget analysis increased by 31.3 percentage points. From the baseline of 40.7%, awareness improved to 72% by the end of the project. Approximately 80% DCMC members are aware of the budget process; understand what it entails and know when and how to participate to influence it.
- 32% of DCMC members now have the capacity to perform basic budget analysis.
- SEND GHANA now produces five (5) annual budget briefs on education, health, social protection, water and sanitation and agriculture, compared to only one (education) when the project begun.
- (97.5%) of 40 SEND GHANA staff targeted for budget training now perform budget analysis compared to four (4) staff at the start of the project.
Outcome 2: Percentage increase of citizens/civil society representatives that participated in local budget planning process in target districts
- Citizens/civil society representatives who participated in local budget planning process in target districts increased from (2%) in 2015 to 41% in 2018. The project baseline indicates that citizens were unaware of the budget process and were not informed or invited to participate.
Outcome 3: Percent of PM&E Network members in target districts aware of allocation and expenditure priorities in the enacted budget in health and educational sector for national and local level
- The awareness of PM&E members of allocation and expenditure priorities in the enacted budget increased from approximately 2% at baseline to 89.4%.
Outcome 4: Percentage increase of PME Network members in target districts noting improvement in service delivery and quality of infrastructure in education and health sector created by local government
- 4% of the targeted 85% PME members have noted improvement in infrastructure and services in education and health.
Outcome 5: Increase in the number of citizen priorities getting reflected in the enacted budget of the health and educational sector (local and national)
- 5% (24 out of 39) of citizens priorities comprising 11 out of 19 inputs on education, 11 out of 17 inputs on health and 2 out of 3 inputs on economic growth submitted to influence the budget, reflected in the enacted budgeted exceeding the expected target of 7 by end of the project.
50% of the citizens inputs made into the national budgets between 2015 and 2018 through the project are being implemented by government.
Other Results
- 232 (97.8%) out of 330 PME members were strengthened for governance processes and efficient project implementation.
- 8 PME members are now members of various committees of MMDAs such as the district planning and coordination unit, education oversight committee, water and sanitation committee and public relations and complaint units among others. Membership of the committees allows project partners to share monitoring information, contribute and influence decisions beyond education and health.
- Roll out of the social accountability report card platform contributed to improved citizens-government interface (56 of citizens concerns placed on the platform received feedback by MDAs and MMDAs)
Formal closure: The GPSA Making the Budget Work for Ghana Project ended on Wednesday, 19th December, 2018 at a close out conference in Accra.
Figure 1: Budget sensitization in Kpongu community, Wa Municipal
Figure 2: A DCMC making presentation during Budget Advocacy training in Wa
Figure 3: Ministry of Finance (MoF) representative on the GPSA steering Committee making submission during a close out conference in Accra
