01 - 04 December 2015

Study visit on Budget literacy and transparency

Zagreb, Croatia

On December 1-4, 2015, the Budget Community of Practice (BCOP) undertook a learning visit to Zagreb and Rijeka, Croatia.  The meeting was organized under BCOP’s Working Group on Budget Transparency and Literacy and was attended by eleven representatives from ten PEMPAL countries – Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine.

The agenda of the meeting focused on lessons learnt from Croatia’s efforts in improving budget transparency at the national level, as well as experience in budget transparency and engaging citizens’ in budgetary processes at the local government level in Croatia. The participants visited a local government unit in Rijeka, Croatia, to review the approaches to promoting citizens' participation in budgeting process by this local government unit, as well as the two additional local government units (Pazin and Crikvenica). In total, ten presentations were held during this Study Visit. Additional materials (guidelines, tools, templates, legislation) will also be provided to the participants.

The objectives of the visit were:

  1. to explore Croatian experience in implementing reforms on budget transparency and participatory budgeting, at both State and local government, and
  2. to hold face-to face meeting of the BCOP Working Group on Budget Transparency and Literacy, including a working session to prepare Group's next meeting and discuss potential knowledge products.

In 2014, the BCOP launched a Working Group on Budget Literacy and Transparency, with the objective to learn from international experience and exchange lessons PEMPAL countries learnt on enhancing budget transparency and accessibility and promoting budget literacy among citizens. This Working Group aims to develop recommendations for PEMPAL countries and other knowledge products enabling dissemination of such practice across the ECA region. Croatia was identified as a host country for this peer-learning visit by the leadership of this Working Group, given its recent progress in improving budget transparency, as well as efforts on enhancing citizens’ participation in budget decisions at the local government level.