Question 36

Does the Executive’s Budget Proposal or any supporting budget documentation present alternative displays of expenditures (such as by gender, by age, by income, or by region) to illustrate the financial impact of policies on different groups of citizens, for at least the budget year?
 * a. Yes, at least three alternative displays of expenditures are presented to illustrate the financial impact of policies on different groups of citizens.
 * b. Yes, two alternative displays of expenditures are presented to illustrate the financial impact of policies on different groups of citizens.
 * c. Yes, one alternative display of expenditures is presented to illustrate the financial impact of policies on different groups of citizens.
 * d. No, alternative displays of expenditures are not presented to illustrate the financial impact of policies on different groups of citizens.
 * e. Not applicable/other (please comment).

Guidelines
Question 36 asks about “alternative displays” of expenditures that highlight the financial impact of policies on different groups of citizens. As discussed above, expenditures are typically presented by at least one of three classifications — administrative, functional, and economic classifications (see Questions 1-5) — and by individual program (Question 6). In addition, governments can provide alternative displays to emphasize different aspects of expenditure policies and to show who benefits from these expenditures.

For the purpose of answering this question, the alternative presentation must differ from the presentations (such as administrative, functional, or economic classifications or presentation by program) used to answer other questions. The alternative display can cover all expenditures or only a portion of expenditures. For instance, it can show how all expenditures are distributed according to geographic region or it can show how selected expenditures (such as the health budget or the agriculture budget) are distributed to different regions. But such a geographic display must be something different than the presentation of intergovernmental transfers used to answer question 35. One exception is when a country includes a special presentation of all policies intended to benefit the most impoverished populations (and is used to answer Question 52) then that can be considered an alternative display for purposes of answering this question as well. Finally, brief fact sheets showing how proposals in the budget benefit particular groups would be insufficient; only more detailed presentations would be considered.

The IBP Budget Brief, “How Transparent are Governments When it Comes to Their Budget’s Impact on Poverty and Inequality?” includes a discussion of the importance of alternative displays of budget information and provides a number of examples. You can read more and find examples here:


 * In Spain, the 2021 Budget Proposal includes a gender-impact report, which classifies programs by their gender relevance and describes how programs advance greater gender equality.
 * The UK’s 2020 budget included a supplementary analysis that provided a distributional analysis of the budget by households in different income groups
 * South Africa’s 2020 Budget Review goes beyond the standard presentation of intergovernmental transfers, discussing the redistribution that results from national revenue flowing to the provinces and municipalities and presenting the allocations on a per capita basis.

To answer “a,” the Executive’s Budget Proposal or supporting documentation must include at least three different presentations that illustrate the financial impact of policies on different groups of citizens for at least the budget year. To answer “b,” the Executive’s Budget Proposal or supporting documentation must include at least two different alternative displays of expenditures. A “c” applies is only one type of alternative display of expenditure is presented. Answer “d” applies if no alternative display of expenditure is presented.

1) What qualifies as an alternative display of expenditures?
In OBS 2021, Turkey’s EBP presented expenditures by individual program, including such programs as “Protection and Empowerment of Family”, “Protection and Development of Children”, “Youth”, “Empowerment of Women”, “Poverty Alleviation and Social Assistance”, “Martyrs' relatives and veterans” which are each allocated a specific amount. A section of the EBP then deep dived into the wide variety of services across ministries that are provided specifically to vulnerable groups such as women (see pages 245-251).

The researcher and government reviewer hoped to score this question “c”, but for consistency across countries, we scored this question “d”. First, the programs noted above are not really appropriate for Question 36, since program displays are part of the regular budget presentation, and so wouldn’t constitute an alternative display. Second, the text noted highlights a limited number of program areas that affect women - it is not a comprehensive review of how all budgetary policies affect women.

2) Case of Jordan in OBS 2021
Jordan presents capital expenditures across all governorates, by administrative classification, in Table 21 here. For Question 36b, would it be most appropriate to choose “Education expenditure by geographic region” and “Health expenditure by geographic region” (given that capital expenditures for both the ministries of education and health are listed by geographic region), or would it be better to count this presentation as “Other display of expenditure”?

Resolution: We counted this presentation as “Other display of expenditure”.

3) What is the connection between questions 36 and 52?
There is an alert in the platform that states: Q52=B, but Q36=D: granted that there is a connection between the two indicators, but neither the Wiki nor the Guidelines clarify how to approach this.

Discussion: This conversation was somehow resolved in the OBS 2019 but is coming back! While in principle having some level of information for Q52 (pro-poor programs) does not automatically guarantee a response other than “d” in Q36 (so we could actually have a “d” in Q36 and a “b” in Q52), in practice we have been fairly generous in Q36 and ended up using the answer to question 52 as evidence for one alternative display for Q36 (the “income” box).

Next steps: Do a consistency check with our preliminary 2021 data and check how many cases we have where Q52 responses are counted as 1 display in Q36 (and vice versa, how many countries have “d” in Q36 but something else in Q52.

Note from Cosette: I don’t actually know how this one was resolved (I think it was sent to Vikram for a consistency check). Elena wrote this one out so perhaps she will remember?