PHM-Exch> Food for a black and white thought

[Claudio Schuftan]

Human Rights Reader 227



*DISPARITY REDUCTION, NATIONAL BUDGETS AND HUMAN RIGHTS.*


The availability and allocation of budgetary resources says a lot about
whether, how, and to what extent a government is committed and determined to
implement its disparity reduction and thus its human rights-focused
policies.


1. National budgets are a 'black and white' proof of whether governments are
putting-their-money-where-their-mouth-is. Through analyzing budgets,
policies that promote equality between different income quintiles, between
different ethnic groups, as well as between men and women can be identified.
Therefore, for civil society to track the national budget is an essential
tool in combating poverty, inequality and human rights (HR) violations.

2. There is a caveat though: Even if allocations are made in the national
budget, in many cases, allocated funds are not disbursed as planned for.
Remember that national accounts are not audited immediately after the
respective fiscal year ends. Therefore, 'budget accountability' has to be
checked by HR activists throughout the year, because once accounts close the
last day of each fiscal year nothing can be done anymore.

3. I am afraid effective disparity-reduction-policies --the way we want them
to be singled-out and funded-- are not and may-not-even-be reflected in
budgets any time soon (and, by extension, governments are not likely to make
much progress in reducing disparities...). That is a whole additional
challenge: to exert the needed pressures for clearly singled-out poverty
reduction measures to make it into the national budget to begin with.

4. That is why assuring a broad participation of the country's
representatives of the interests of people who happen to be poor and
marginalized is so vital.

5. This marginalized group of society:

·      must be present in the diagnosis and analysis of the country's
poverty and ill-being situation,

·      must check whether assistance and services are delivered where most
needed,

·      must annually participate in the national budget preparation process
to check for any omissions or misallocations,

·      must, throughout the year, be vigilant of misappropriations or the
blocking of financial resources (making sure funds do arrive at the places
where they are supposed to be available for spending),

·      must participate in the monitoring of program outcomes as budgeted,
and

·      must be vocal about all of the above and make 'noise' if they are of
the opinion corrective actions are needed.


6. This Reader thus intends to, just briefly, remind you that national
budgets (including foreign aid allocations that pass through the budget) are
indeed a powerful, underutilized, instrument to keep authorities
HR-accountable!



Claudio Schuftan, Ho Chi Minh City
cschuftan at phmovement.org
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