Partnerships for Accountability in Climate Change Finance: Making budgets more effective Sujala Pant Governance and Climate Change Finance Specialist UNDP Bangkok Regional Hub

Overview of Climate Related Allocations Overview of Climate Related Allocations ( CPEIR: Climate Public Expenditure and Institutional Reviews)

Budget effectiveness for sustainable development Gender Equity Climate Change Resilience Poverty Alleviation Is it effective? Is it equitable? Are investments leading to intended results? What is the basis on which climate change investments are decided? Are enough resources being spent to address climate change? Do expenditures match allocations? Do investments address the needs of the poor and most vulnerable? Is the government accountable for its decisions on climate change investments? Are citizens aware of decisions and actions? So why are we focusing on the budget? Because the budget is one of the strongest policy statements – it the translation of policies and political commitments into actions that can be implemented. In other words, money talks. Many countries have climate change policies, – but to what extent are they being implemented? To what extent are they driving planning and budgeting decision-making? The allocations made through the budget give us a good starting point from which to judge. (and this one of the first questions we ask through the CPEIR – refer to pie chart). But it is not enough to look at what percentage of the budget is climate related. So far, Climate Budget codes etc. have helped us to understand how much governments have spent, or at least allocated for climate change response. But most of the time, we do not know the result of that investment, and what its actual impact has been, at least not in a sustainable and systemic manner. So the effectiveness of the budget –whether it matches its intended purposes – is one of the questions we need to be asking, and where it is not happening, how can it be improved.

How can this change happen? Access Analysis Dialogue How can there be a match between the demand and supply of climate change finance related information? Is information available in a way that the key policy makers understand it? Can the information be used to enable dialogue among key stakeholders, and strengthen public awareness? Do relevant actors have the required capacity to use available information to advocate for reform? Do relevant actors have access to the relevant information Do they understand the information that is available? Can they use this information to initiate public dialogue and catalyse debates?

Accountability through collaboration Parliament Government CSO Media Objective is to strengthen oversight and advocacy roles Different actors – mutually reinforcing FOCUS is on oversight – yes, they have other characteristics as well, but our efforts will focus on that (or should the not? It’s a question) IBP will help us to understand what it would mean to be involved in the budget formulation. Any other actors?

Examples: Accessible Information

Example: Parliamentary toolkit on Climate Finance Sample guiding questions: For Programme X, have you undertaken vulnerability assessments? Have you looked at reference X on existing vulnerabilities in district A in the process of designing this budget? Which policies did you refer to when formulating the budget? Did you look at Policy X when formulating the budget? Did you look at expenditure report from the last FY? Did you look at project monitoring report from year X? Did you see the latest report on impact of CC on irrigation? How was this taken into account?

… and research What is the impact of CC on the key sectors highlighted in the Multi- Dimensional Poverty Index? Do the budget allocations/expenditures respond to the magnitude of the identified CC effects/risks? (correlation with the district CPEIR data) Decision-making and deliberation Expenditure data Climate change impact analyses Socio-economic data More effective and equitable climate sensitive budget proposals

Thank you. sujala.pant@undp.org @APRC_CF www.cfade.org