Citizen Budget Work
Few public decisions have a greater effect on people's every day lives than public budget issues. It is through public budgets that governments decide what kind of education they will provide to their children, health care to their people, and how they will seek to bridge the gap between rich and poor with public welfare and other programs. Nevertheless, few public matters are shrouded in as much mystery and technical jargon.
For more than a decade The Democracy Center has been working to help citizens around the world to build up their understanding of budget and tax issues and to become actively involved in shaping public policy on those issues.
Budget Work in California
In 1994 The Democracy Center founded The California Budget Project [link to: http://www.cbp.org ] to bring to the media, policy makers and the public as a whole a progressive and solid analysis of state budget issues. The Center led a collaboration of children's groups, labor organizations, health advocates, and others to create the CBP and give social justice organizations a greater voice in public budget policy.
Budget Work Around the World
Today The Democracy Center works in close collaboration with the International Budget Project [link to: http://www.internationalbudget.org ] building that same capacity for citizen budget work worldwide. This work is especially aimed at poor countries and at the challenge of making the needs of the poor the first priority for budget policy.
The Democracy Center has trained and counseled citizen budget advocates in Bolivia, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras, Peru, Guatemala and elsewhere. The Center led the development of the Civil Society Budget Initiative [http://www.internationalbudget.org/CSBI.htm] which provides grant support to groups in poor countries that are beginning to undertake budget work.
Reports on Global Budget Work
The Democracy Center is also the author of two important reports from international conferences that it also helped facilitate on international budget issues. These include:
Promises To Keep: Using Public Budgets As A Tool To Advance Economic, Social And Cultural Rights (2002) Reflections and strategies based on a three-day dialogue between international human rights and budget activists, convened in Cuernavaca Mexico in January 2002. Sponsored by the Ford Foundation.
Following The Money: Lessons From Civil Society Budget Work And How They Might Be Applied To The Challenge Of Monitoring Oil And Gas Revenues (2004) Reflections and strategies based on a dialogue between international budget activists and groups monitoring extractive industry revenue, convened in Budapest in April 2002. Sponsored by the Open Society Institute.
Coming in 2005, citizen budget work and the role of international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.