International Budget Partnership

The International Budget Partnership (IBP) leads a global campaign to promote transparency and citizen participation in decisions about how governments raise and spend revenues. In partnership with civil society organizations, state actors, international institutions, and the private sector, IBP undertakes research, training, and advocacy to ensure that budget decision-making processes are participatory and inclusive and that spending policies promote equity and justice. IBP’s Strengthening Public Accountability for Results and Knowledge (SPARK) initiative partners with civil society organizations and social movements to help underserved groups understand the fiscal challenges behind poor service delivery and equip them with the knowledge and tools necessary to effectively advocate for improved public spending. SPARK combines the strength and momentum of large, “bottom-up” advocacy movements with the targeted public finance expertise and experience of IBP to improve basic services for vulnerable communities. In Senegal, the first phase of SPARK brought new actors — social movements — into the fiscal governance space to achieve improvements in budget allocations and service delivery in key sectors prioritized by marginalized groups. These social movements now have a set of capacities and a level of self-confidence that enable them to identify, engage with, and ultimately influence government decisions. During this grant period, in addition to transitioning from a program to a grounded, adaptive, and effective country office in Senegal, IBP will look to deepen and scale this work to ensure that fiscal governance and service delivery systems are more inclusive, responsive, and accountable to the needs of historically excluded groups, especially women and girls in Senegal. This includes officially registering IBP’s office in Senegal and acting as intermediary in the country to support our Inclusive Governance strategy’s grantmaking there.