Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

In The Face Of Crisis: The Treatment Action Campaign Fights Government Inertia With Budget Advocacy And Litigation, Neil Overy, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

At the turn of the millennium the South African government allocated a total of R214 million (US$28.5 million) to the fight against HIV/AIDS, an epidemic that had reached crisis proportions. Less than 10 years later this figure has risen, in inflation-adjusted terms, to R3.96 billion (US$528 million), a real increase of over 1,850 percent. This study looks at how a civil society organization’s ongoing campaigns for treatment access that combined negotiations with the government, mass mobilization of its members (including civil disobedience campaigns), and litigation contributed to this increase.

The full version, short summary, and one page summary of this …

Samarthan’S Campaign To Improve Access To The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme In India, Ramesh Awasthi, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

In India the implementation of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), which guarantees a minimum of 100 days of unskilled work per year to every poor rural family that needs employment, has been ridden with bureaucratic glitches and widespread corruption. This case study examines a civil society campaign to address problems in the NREGA’s administration and mobilize people to demand work under the scheme.

The full version, short summary, and one page summary of this case study are available in English. Summaries are also available in Spanish, French, Arabic, and Chinese.

LINK: http://internationalbudget.org/publications/samarthan%E2%80%99s-campaign-to-improve-access-to-the-national-rural-employment-guarantee-scheme-in-india/

Children’S Right To Early Education In The City Of Buenos Aires: A Case Study On Acij’S Class Action, Fernando Basch, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

Through a complex litigation strategy that involved “freedom of information” requests, budget analysis, and media dissemination, the Civil Association for Equality and Justice (Asociación Civil por la Igualdad y la Justicia, or ACIJ) pressured the formerly reluctant government of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, to acknowledge a legitimate unsatisfied claim related to school vacancies for initial-level education and commit to making significant policy changes. This case study examines the ACIJ campaign and draws lessons for civil society engagement in public finance processes.

The full version, short summary, and one page summary of this case study are available in English. …

Show Me The Money: Budget Advocacy In Indonesia, International Budget Partnership

International Budget Partnership

In "Show Me the Money: Budget Advocacy in Indonesia," authors from five civil society organizations – IDEA, the Inisiatif Association, Lakpesdam NU, the Centre for Information and Regional Studies (PATTIRO), and the Indonesian Forum for Budget Transparency (FITRA) – present five case studies on their budget work to fight against corruption and improve the allocation of government resources, and five case studies from smaller organizations based in various local districts in the country.

In addition, check out the related two-page summaries that explore the impact of civil society budget work in Indonesia to improve policies and outcomes in school funding, …

Construyendo Políticas Públicas Globales: Una Aproximación Al Marco Teórico De Estudio. Working Paper N. 5, Mario A. Pinzón Mapc

Mario A Pinzón Camargo

El objetivo de este artículo es proporcionar un marco teórico a partir del cual sea posible hablar de las políticas públicas globales, como categoría de análisis de la gobernanza global. Se presenta una aproximación teórica basada en la teoría de la elección racional.

Betting On Oil: The World's Bank's Attempt To Promote Accountability In Chad, Matthew S. Winters, John A. Gould

John A Gould

ABSTRACT: Can international donors ensure that poor countries spend their natural resource revenues on development? We review the World Bank’s 14-year effort to guide such expenditure in Chad. The World Bank used its leverage as a gate keeper of private oil sector to write oil revenue restrictions into Chadian law. Chad also agreed to submit its expenditure to oversight by a new quasi-governmental institution. These efforts were not sufficient to overcome Chad’s poor governance and weak political accountability in the country. Despite the efforts made under the Chad-Cameroon Oil Pipeline Project, little of Chad’s oil wealth has been spent on …

Paraguay Governance Assessments, Robert Andrew Nickson

Robert Andrew Nickson

This report presents the findings of the review of the DGTTF-funded project, System for Monitoring and Evaluation of Democratic Governance in Paraguay. The project took place over 15 months from March 2008 to June 2009 with a DGTTF grant of $100,000 to cover the costs of the preparation and publication of the baseline governance assessment framework. This review assesses the extent to which the project was innovative and catalytic in the Paraguayan context. It considers what has made the project succeed or fail, and why. The project was carried out under the ‘national execution’ modality, with the Congress as implementing …

Civil Society And Democratic Governace In Nigeria

OBI, Ndifon Neji

The return to civilian rule in 1999 it was thought, had settled Nigeria’s problem of misgovernance and it was hoped that a formal transition from militarism (militarizzare) to democracy would usher in a new era of democratic order which will in turn enhance good governance based on the democratic principles of respect of basic rights, rule of law, provision of basic amenities, political stability and economic development. But after about eleven years of uninterrupted democratic experimentation, this has proved to be a mirage. Nigeria continues to suffer from insincere leadership even as the political situation worsens threatening hopes for democratic …

Non-Tariff Measures In The Mna Region: Improving Governance For Competitiveness, Olivier Cadot, Patricia Augier, Julien Gourdon, Mariem Malouche

Olivier Cadot

This note reviews what we know about NTMs affecting the regional and global trade integration of MNA economies. In MNA countries, NTMs contribute to segment markets and to raise the domestic prices of affected products, generating countervailing demands for other distortionary policies to contain the cost of living. The combination of these distortionary measures generates inefficiency and policy deadlock. Significant progress has been made, but reforms have remained superficial—from the adoption of technical improvements in border management without a change of enforcement culture, to the creation of dialogue structures that remain largely empty shells for lack of political drive. The …