1. Public Finances and services for children at local level Eva Jespersen ejespersen@unicef.org 4 April 2008

2. 2 Ability to collect revenue: Levels of public expenditures in CEE/CIS in ’93/94 and ’03/04; high levels, less divergence to 20-30 % for low-come and EU standard of 40-50 for CEE.

3. 3 Public revenue and expenditures Revenue Taxes and levies: indirect and direct Acc to C Gov & Loc Govt Social contributions Revenue of ‘national wealth funds’ ODA and other aid Borrowing/domestic & foreign Expenditures Extra budgetary items Statutory exp: pensions Interest on borrowing C Govt budget incl allocation to L Govts Capital expenditures Recurrent expenditures

4. 4

5. 5

6. 6 Taxes and benefits over the life course, DK and Greece

7. 7 Issues in analysing allocations for social services Central Government Budget norms - unit of service or unit of beneficiary – differentiated by conditions Equalizing funds Division of sector responsibilities: tertiary services // basic services Local Government Local revenue generation – local taxes/VAT, user fees Allocation from C Govt Procuring services from C Govt Vertical gaps – unfunded mandates (exp> revenue) Horizontal imbalances (mismatch between pop and revenue)

8. 8 Making the best use of public spending Costing of new mandates Expenditure tracking Effectiveness in spending: Incentives to spend effectively flexibility (combined w accountability) allocations based on burden/outcomes not past spending Transparency / accountability SOCIAL/PARTICIPATORY BUDGETING

9. 9 Right to extensive level of health and education services and child/family allowances, but … Poorer countries don’t have the means to fund entitlements adequately Changes in provision - less linkage between labour force participation and access to social services for the family (particularly in health, child care) – erosion of pre school in LICs. Still strong preference for hospital-based services More choice for the rich and in richer countries increasing private provision, tuition based tertiary services. Erosion of value of transfers to families/children lessening ability to purchase services in the market

10. 10 Cross country analysis may encourage experience sharing/lessons learning Public expenditures on education as % of GDP (year), all levels?

11. 11 Public expenditure on basic education per student, in PPP $

12. 12

13. Thank you