Windhoek:  Namibia's civil society wants to influence the budget as well as monitor it, instead of getting involved only after the document has been tabled.  Through the involvement of the civil society, the national budget is envisaged to become a citizens' budget where ordinary people have a grasp of it, hence getting engaged in its formulation.

The Namibia Non-Governmental Organisation's Forum (NANGOF) Trust and the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) held a pre-budget briefing for civil society leaders yesterday.

A citizen's budget should be a simple, lean budget document that sums up the national budget, highlighting the most relevant points for the man and woman on the street and in the fields.  The citizens' budget would thus serve as a means of achieving greater public engagement with Namibia's budget process.

"We want people to start thinking about the budget as a year-long process. A lot of things have been mentioned in the previous budgets but were never implemented, that's why we have to follow budgets," the IPPR's executive director, Graham Hopwood said.

Hopwood said traditionally, the budget has been seen as the preserve of economists and business people.  "The IPPR wishes to make the budget more accessible to ordinary people. We are urging Government to adopt a simplified budget," Hopwood added.

A citizens' budget would sum up the most salient features of the budget in layperson's terms. It can take many forms but it should be designed to reach as large a segment of the population as possible.  It should be tangible and contain more than just figures, which allows citizens to understand what it is the Government is trying to do, including the use of simple terminology that can be easily translated into local languages.

According to the IPPR, an education budget amounting to N$4,5 billion does not mean anything to the ordinary citizen, but it would make sense if people hear "Government will build 50 schools, ten in which region and all learners will have mathematics textbooks".

According to Hopwood, civil society must also come up with their own shadow budget and sit down and map out its own budget process.  He was, however, quick to point out that there is no point for civil society to come up with a wish list that is unrealistic, adding that they have to understand the constraints such as the ones of the SACU receipts and the global financial crisis.

There is also a call for the finance minister to have a post-budget presentation for civil society and answer some questions as is done for business people.

Hopwood cited important sectors such as the HIV/AIDS funding that are much dependent on donor funding, which he said Government should seriously look at.  "Welfare grants is a huge issue, we need to look closely at those grants and see how they impact on the poor," he said.

According to a recent IPPR briefing paper, the idea behind a citizens' budget is to bolster basic democratic principles by giving people information and oversight over the activities of their government.  "At a very practical level, this can be interpreted as getting citizens more involved in how Government spends their money," the paper stated.

A citizens' budget aims to increase participation and interest in the way the country is run and to involve those people who have difficulty comprehending the budget process and documentation, especially the poor and people in rural areas.

Namibia was ranked average in terms of overall budget transparency, in the Open Budget Index 2008.  "Why should we guess about the budget date? It makes life difficult for people to engage in the budget process. The ministry should develop a serious citizens' budget," Hopwood advised.

*  The full IPPR report can be accessed from the service delivery theme section on the ANSA-Africa website.  Alternatively, go to "Our 20 most recent postings" section on the home page.