open budget index 2008

On February 4, 2009, in India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, Center for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA) together with the International Budget Partnership (IBP) released the Open Budget Index 2008 – a comparative, in-depth measure of national budget transparency in 85 countries around the world.

The welcome and introduction by Yamini Mishra, Executive Director of CBGA, was followed by the overview of the Open Budget Survey by Ravi Duggal from IBP. Mr Duggal explained the methodology behind the index, signalizing that at present the OBI concerns national budgets only. He remarked that although the overall performance paints a bleak picture, especially in the phase of budget formulation and execution, there are countries, for example Sri Lanka, which have achieved a significant progress in budget transparency and accountability over the past two years. Moreover, according to the survey findings, many governments could improve transparency at low cost by making publicly available the budget information they already produce for donors or internal use.
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To see the OBI 2008 results and find out more about Open Budget Survey, visit www.openbudgetindex.org