Civil Society Team for Enhancing Public Budget Transparency

About the CSTPBT

Aman has worked to establish a civil team to support the transparency of the public budget, representing a number of Palestinian sectoral civil organizations, namely: Aman Foundation, Miftah Foundation, Center for Democracy and Workers ’Rights, Hydrology Society, Creator’s Teacher Center Development work - together, the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, the Federation of Food Industries, the Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries, the Federation of Chambers of Commerce, Agriculture and Industry, the Palestinian Federation of Local Authorities, the Network of NGOs, the Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS), the Law Center Ah Civil Society Development, a forum of intellectuals Charity Association, Conscience Foundation, Al-Haq, the Institute of Development Studies) Birzeit (University, Jerusalem Center for Legal Aid and the Jerusalem Center for Social Rights and the Economic Commission national civil organizations Palestinian, as well as some economic experts.

AMAN performs secretarial work for CSTPBT, through providing logistical and technical support to it in light of insufficient and unstable financial capabilities. AMAN invites for CSTPBT meetings and prepares the agenda of meetings and minutes, in addition to any papers and documents related to the public budget, working as a bridge between the team and the official authorities, presided by the Ministry of Finance. With the vital support of AMAN, CSTPBT team participated in a number of training workshops to build their capacity in the public budget field.

The CSTPBT team believes in the urgent need of informing the citizens about the public budget to participate in its preparation, in order to be able to hold it accountable and follow up the management of government spending and public money. To achieve this goal and before approving the budget of 2011 specifically, the CSTPBC team submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Finance & Planning, requesting the adoption of the citizen’s budget, which is one of the basic elements that guarantee the transparency of the public budget. Indeed, the Ministry adopted the proposal and instructed to manage the public budget in cooperation with the CSTPBT team in this field. The citizen’s budget was issued for the first time in Palestine during the year 2011, and it was developed to become the citizen’s guide during the year 2013 where the national team will work to raise the awareness on it. Moreover, Aman succeeded recently in convincing the Council of Ministers of the need to involve civil society organizations to cooperate with the ministries in discussing annual budgets before submitting them to the Cabinet for approval.

Specialized sub-committees were formulated from the members of the CSTPBT, focusing on three-main essential sectors (Health, Education, Social development).  Each sub-committee has a leading organization that is in charge of it.

Aman will work in the future to establish the monitor unit, which will be specialized in following up on all issues related to the public budget, thus creating a reference for all interested citizens, researchers and various institutions.

Members of the CSTPBT

Publications of the Civil Society Team for Enhancing Public Budget Transparency: