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SEND Ghana: Supporting open budget processes

SEND Ghana

“The need for the poor, especially, women to have a strong and consistent voice in budgetary decision making at national and district levels is our primary agenda” — SEND Ghana

29/100

Ghana’s score for public participation in the 2015 Open Budget Index

Start date
October 2015
End date
March 2017
Period: 18 months

Issue

When we talk about government being accountable and open, one of the first things we think about is the sharing of information, so communities know what their government is planning, what they are doing and what they have achieved.

Over the last 20 years, Ghana’s government has moved a lot of decision-making powers and budget responsibility to local level (MMDAs) to help bridge this divide between government and citizens - but it has not provided a solution. Because there is no incentive for government to involve citizens, very little information about budgeting is actually being available. The information that is made public, is in huge data sets, or in language incomprehensible for ordinary citizens. As a result, citizens in Ghana are asking how they can possibly hold government to account when they don’t know what it is government is actually doing, what they are spending public money on, and why?

Project

With this project, SEND wants to make budget information easy-to-understand and available for everybody.

Working through community radio stations, newsletters, workshops and community meetings, the team will conduct a mass-education campaign to help people understand how they can access information about government spending, and help them to read and understand it.

SEND will also work with local and national advocacy groups to help them use the data in their work, campaigning for better budgeting, and inclusion of citizens in the budgeting process.

Partner

SEND Ghana is an advocacy organization that is currently operational in 50 districts in four regions (Upper East, Upper West, Northern and Greater Accra regions) in Ghana. SEND Ghana has established strong relationships with community organisations, local and national government and CSOs throughout Ghana, promoting good governance and equality of men and women.

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