Ukrainian cities increase the transparency of local budgets
- Details
- 22.04.2014
In the beginning of April representatives of CSOs, journalists and specialists of the financial department gathered at the seminars for developing instruments for visualization of budget information and encouraging public participation in the budget process at the local level. The seminars were held in Ivano-Frankivsk and Zhytomyr in the context of the Open Budget Initiative, a joint project of UN Development Programme and Internews.
There are several challenges hindering the access of urban residents to information on local budgets. First, budgeting is one of the most intricate sectors of local government with special terminology and regulations, budgetary data is represented in the format and terms of financial reporting, without explanation and adaptation of information for the wide audience. Second, the budget information is placed in an awkward format for reviewing at the municipal web-sites. As a result, it is difficult for the citizens to find information on local budgets and they are unable to influence budget process. At the same time, there are plenty successful solutions for raising budgetary data transparency in the world, for instance budgets of Oakland municipality (the USA), United Kingdom, the Philippines, Brazil, South Korea and other.
The Open Budget Initiative is designed to support three municipalities in developing effective on-line tools for visualization and analysis of budget information and fostering effective cooperation of local authorities and civil society to facilitate greater transparency of local budgets and decision-making process.
Three pilot municipalities include Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil and Zhytomyr. These municipalities expressed willingness to raise the transparency of local budgets information.
The first trainings were held in Ivano-Frankivsk and Zhytomyr for the representatives of city council, civil society and journalists for working out technical solutions that would allow the city to more effectively present the budget data and receive feedback from the citizens at different stages of the budget process.
In course of the seminar, the participants were informed on modern trends in visualization of budget information through infographics and creating timelines. The group exercise on visualizing timeline of budget cycle, major stakeholders and entry points for civil society participation in this process was very useful for participants.
Based on the information participants have received at the seminar, CSO "Franko Times» activists have created a dynamic infographics on budget expenditures of Ivano-Frankivsk in 2014, which has been posted at the webpage of the organization.
The next seminar on open municipal budgets and budgetary data visualization will take place in Ternopil on April 28-29.
This portal is run by UNDP in Ukraine with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark.
