From Numbers to Nurses: Why Budget Transparency, Expenditure Monitoring, and Accountability are Vital to the Post-2015 Framework

10 October 2014 - Today, on the sidelines of the the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington DC, Government Spending Watch (GSW), International Budget Partnership (IBP) and Oxfam are launching a joint paperwhich identifies how vital ensuring budget transparency, monitoring, and accountability will be to the success of the Post-2015 development framework.

The post-2015 framework will contain the most ambitious set of development goals ever agreed and will require a significant increase in the effectiveness and efficiency of government spending. Bringing together available evidence and new quantitative analysis, this brief shows that budget transparency, expenditure monitoring and accountability can contribute to increases in spending towards, and better results related to, development goals. Whether or not this occurs crucially depends on data availability, space for civil society engagement, political will, and government capacity. Ensuring positive outcomes in the post-2015 agenda requires a “data revolution” in tracking government spending, aid and results.