We are happy to be surrounded by a large number of organizations that are playing a crucial role in advancing fiscal transparency and public participation in the budget process. Below is a list of some of these international initiatives, coalesce a wide range of actors working on fiscal transparency and accountability around the world:
The Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT) is a multi-stakeholder action network working to advance and institutionalize global norms and significant, continuous improvements on fiscal transparency, participation, and accountability in countries around the world.
The Global Partnership for Social Accountability (GPSA) is a coalition of donors, governments and civil society organizations (CSOs) that aims to improve development results by supporting capacity building for enhanced citizen feedback and participation. The GPSA will contribute to country-level governance reforms and improved service delivery. To achieve this objective, the GPSA provides strategic and sustained support to CSOs¡¯ social accountability initiatives aimed at strengthening transparency and accountability.
The Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability (PEFA) Program was founded in 2001 as a multi-donor partnership between seven donor agencies and international financial institutions to assess the condition of country public expenditure, procurement and financial accountability systems and develop a practical sequence for reform and capacity-building actions.
The International Budget Partnership collaborates with civil society around the world to use budget analysis and advocacy as a tool to improve effective governance and reduce poverty.
The Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) summarizes the extent to which countries observe certain internationally recognized standards and codes. The IMF has recognized 12 areas and associated standards as useful for the operational work of the Fund and the World Bank. These comprise accounting; auditing; anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT); banking supervision; corporate governance; data dissemination; fiscal transparency; insolvency and creditor rights; insurance supervision; monetary and financial policy transparency; payments systems; and securities regulation; AML/CFT was added in November 2002. Reports summarizing countries' observance of these standards are prepared and published at the request of the member country.
The International Budget Practices and Procedures Database contains the results of the 2007 OECD survey of budget practices and procedures in OECD countries, the 2008 World Bank/OECD survey of budget practices and procedures in Asia and other regions, and the 2008 CABRI/OECD survey of budget practices and procedures in Africa. Information on budget institutions from 97 countries is available, including 31 OECD member countries and 66 non-members from the Middle East, Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Open Government Partnership is a new multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency, empower citizens, fight corruption, and harness new technologies to strengthen governance. In the spirit of multi-stakeholder collaboration, OGP is overseen by a steering committee of governments and civil society organizations.
The Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) is a global standard that promotes revenue transparency. It has a robust yet flexible methodology for monitoring and reconciling company payments and government revenues at the country level. Each implementing country creates its own EITI process which is overseen by participants from the government, companies and national civil society. The international EITI Board and the International Secretariat are the guardians of the EITI methodology internationally.
The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) aims to make information about aid spending easier to access, use and understand. Its purpose is to help implement the transparency commitments made at the Accra Agenda for Action in the most consistent and coherent ways.
The Transparency and Accountability Initiative (T/A Initiative) is a donor collaborative working to expand the impact and scale of transparency and accountability interventions. The T/A Initiative is co-chaired by the Open Society Foundation (OSF) and the Department for International Development (DFID).
