1. UWC Community Engagement Colloquium “Re-thinking and Re-creating Community Engagement” Budget(s) for Governance and Accountability – powered by and empowering active citizens University of the Western Cape Cape Town 30 October 2017
Zukiswa Kota
Public Service Accountability Monitor or
@Right_to_SAM

2. Introduction
“In the face of all the challenges of the 21st century…. We would be failing as universities if we did not adapt to, engage with and think deeply about these challenges with a view to graduating citizens for the world. …Universities need to produce a culture of critical and ethical citizenry which ..would advance the development of a democratic society.” -Professor Tyrone Pretorius – Principal and VC, 2016 “Through a variety of partnerships, both internal and external, we work towards an enhanced empowerment of our students, preparing them to take up their role of democratic citizenship.” -Professor Pamela Dube, DVC – Student Development and Support, 2016

4. City of Cape Town

5. Makana Municipality

6. Role of Civil Society in Budgets

8. TRANSPARENCY AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
Re-imagining Engagement and Partnership
OPEN BUDGETING
TRANSPARENCY AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
National Treasury: Raquel Ferreira
Public Service Accountability Monitor: Zukiswa Kota

9. Public Budgets, Public Participation and Social Justice
“We write to you on behalf of civil society organisations involved in a variety of budget advocacy initiatives and particularly those involving budget transparency. We acknowledge the current national-level commitments that the South African government has made within the Open Government Partnership (OGP) framework- pertaining to fiscal transparency Commitment 2: Open Budgeting. Specifically our interest in writing to you relates to the National Treasury- driven commitment “Improving the Open Budgeting process by making information publicly available in an accessible platform allowing citizens to track government spending on commitments” - and specifically the development of “an interactive data portal to furnish the public with extensive information on the budget and expenditure outcomes…” ……..To this extent- we seek to contribute to the creation a proactive and collaborative engagement in keeping with the principles of OGP agreements. ……..we seek to influence the trajectory of this portal to ensure that it not only promotes accountability, transparency and citizens’ access to public budget information but fundamentally enhances our collective fights towards the progressive realisation of socioeconomic rights. ” - CSO letter to Dr. Kay Brown, August 2016

10. Why?….
“Open data empowers citizens and enables them to hold government institutions to account. Open data can also help citizens to understand, influence and participate directly in decision-making processes and in the development of public policies in support of public sector integrity. This can be an important process in building trust and strengthening collaboration between government and all sectors of society” -Transparency International, 2017

12. Online Budget Portals vs Website?
Transparency also requires;
Good qualitative data (descriptive, narrative)
Sufficient levels of disaggregation (and clear explanations for how fiscal data is aggregated)
Actual (expenditure), real time data
Revenue data
Performance-related data
Procurement data
Technical differences between websites and portals but no standard definition for either
However; generally consider user-focussed platforms (portals)
Ministry-focussed disclosure platforms (website); limited language/tools to support external users
Portals can act as a link to multiple platforms or websites or be self-contained
Both may contain documents and datasets
“The key difference between a good website and a portal is not whether there are tools or datasets, but whether they are designed to be an entry point with the user in mind (a portal) or designed to be a reference point with the disclosure needs of the government agency in mind (a website)” (Leon et al., 2016)
Portals should also offer a level of user interaction and ‘manipulability’ and user feedback mechanisms

13. How? Priorities for meaningful, inclusive participation
The components that are key to this kind of participation-oriented portal;
In addition to the geographical spread across 9 provinces
consider gender representation
Consider age spectrum – youth, senior citizens and everyone in between (consider implication of data pertaining Social development and social grants, for instance)
Duty-bearers within service delivery departments
Policy-makers and researchers both within public office and within the NGO/cso sector
What does user-friendliness mean to a young person who is not a first language English speaker
Linguistic considerations
What does user-friendliness mean to a researcher supporting CSO advocacy outside of the academic realm
How much fun can people have – links to existing CSO campaigns

14. Guiding principles….
Leon, de la Mora and Ruiz (2016) Propose 4 dimensions of online fiscal transparency:
Scope: the breadth of information disclosed (completeness/comprehensiveness etc.)
Accessibility: extent to which government facilitates access (eg is data machine readable?)
Reliability: eg are data sources acknowledged and clear?
Feedback: eg are users able to respond to information (can users seek assistance? Are user statistics provided?)

15. Where are we? (source: Leon et al., 2016)

16. Guiding principles and lessons?
Some case studies/resources:
Leon, de la Mora and Ruiz, 2016:
GIFT, 2015, 2016
Global Integrity 2016

17. Examples of Online Budget Portals?
USA:
Mexico:

18. UWC Community Engagement Colloquium Cape Town, 30 October 2017 -Thank you-
Zukiswa Kota
Public Service Accountability Monitor or
@Right_to_SAM
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