A Citizens' Guide to Monitoring Government Expenditures is a guide that reflects the growing focus of civil society organisations on monitoring the results achieved by government expenditures. The guide offers an overview of government budget implementation, including budget execution, procurement, impact measurement, and auditing and legislative oversight processes. It also provides practical, tested tools that can be used by independent organizations interested in monitoring government expenditures.
The budget still failed to address major concerns around job generation and poverty alleviation strategies. The reality in South Africa is that the economy has been unable to absorb labour sufficiently quickly into the economy and as a result, the level of unemployment continues to increase. This in turn affects levels of poverty within the country which in turn impacts negatively on issues such as crime, for example. The assertion that the Government has created 1.5 million jobs over the past five years has to be taken with a pinch of salt.
Is this budget a deficit?
On Thursday, 7 February 2008, came the promise of “Business Unusual”. On budget day, 20 February 2008, we got “business as usual”. Hardly surprising given that this budget comes in the penultimate year of a sitting Government, hardly a time at which to be uncharacteristically unusual - especially with money, and probably a time at which a steady course that tries to please everyone is best. That is an unenviable task even at the best of times, and all the more so during the most extraordinary of them.
Through Public Participation We Can Influence The Budget Cycle
The Peoples Budget Coalition (PBC) believes that today’s budget defers the dreams and aspirations of the poor until the storm has subsided. Measured against our expectation that the budget would invest substantial resources towards reduction of poverty, inequality and unemployment, it does not live up to the challenges facing our society.
We have placed you at the head of our country. Of course, we have done this upon what appeared to us to be sufficient reasons, and yet we think it best for you to know that there are some things in regard to which we are not quite satisfied with.
We believe you to be a brave and skillful leader, which, of course, we like. We also believe you do not mix personal preferences with politics, in which you are right. You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable, if not an indispensable quality.
The United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Global Environment Outlook: environment for development (GEO-4) report published 20 years after the World Commission on Environment and Development, assesses the current state of the global atmosphere, land, water and biodiversity, describes the changes since 1987, and identifies priorities for action. Failure to address these persistent problems, UNEP says, may undo all the achievements so far on the simpler issues, and may threaten humanity’s survival.
“Can Local Government Work for the Poor?” is an article that examines the effects of political, fiscal, and administrative decentralisation on development. Published by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), this article offers a number of perspectives from experts on how decentralisation could be made to work for the poor.
To view the full article, click here.
According to statistics by South Africa’s Department of Health, an estimated 5.4 million South Africans were living with HIV in 2006. Since its discovery more than twenty years ago, it has become increasingly clear that HIV/AIDS is one of the most serious and important challenges that the world, and particularly those in the developing world, have ever had to face.
