Open Budget Initiative Outreach Consultations Kicks Up Nationwide

By P. Vangerline Kpotoe

 The Government of Liberia through the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP) has announced the launch of a nationwide Fiscal year (FY) 2024 Open Budget Initiative and FY 2025 Pre-Budget Consultations across the country.

According to a statement from MFDP dated September 24, 2024, the Department of Budget and Development Planning will lead the exercises intended to enhance fiscal transparency and increase public participation in the budget process.

The statement noted that this year’s outreach will focus on disseminating the Mid-Year Budget Performance Report, including county expenditures.

The communication added that the outreach will also provide a platform for citizens, especially vulnerable and marginalized individuals such as women groups, disadvantaged youths, Persons with disabilities, representatives from Civil Society Organizations, private sector, private sector, and academia to identify their priorities for the FY2025 budget. 

The statement added that these initiatives are aimed to ensure that the voices of the public are actively incorporated into fiscal planning.

The outreach initiative, according to the release, is being partly supported by the USAID-Local Empowerment for Accountability and Decentralization (LEAD).

The statement noted that the outreach campaign is a significant move towards improving transparency and ensuring compliance with key international standards, including the Open Government Partnership (OGP), the International Budget Partnership (IBP), and the Global Initiative for Fiscal Transparency (GIFT).

The statement emphasized that by prioritizing the availability of key budget information, the initiative seeks to foster greater accountability and public engagement in fiscal matters.

“This effort is expected to build on recent progress, which resulted in Liberia's fiscal transparency scores increasing from 45 percent to 52 percent over the past two years. Recent assessments also indicate a rise in public participation in budget processes from six percent to 15 percent,” the statement stressed.

The MFDP statement asserted that to maintain this positive trajectory, the Government of Liberia is committed to producing key budget documents annually and facilitating discussions that allow community members to raise inquiries about fiscal reports.

It added: “The proposed actions are projected to significantly increase Liberia's fiscal transparency score to 61 percent and its public participation score to 20 percent by the next Open Budget Survey,”