MIFTAH
Friday, 29 March. 2024
 
Your Key to Palestine
The Palestinian Initiatives for The Promotoion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
 
 
 

Ramallah – MIFTAH recently held a session to discuss the development of a digitized Citizens’ Budget in 2022. The session was attended by planning and budgetary teams and IT departments in several ministries in addition to members of the Civil Society Team for Enhancing Public Budget Transparency. Ultimately, this would increase citizens’ access to fiscal data and figures pertaining to ministry budgets, especially regarding service programs directly impacting citizens.

In the first quarter of 2022, MIFTAH worked with budgetary teams in the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Labor to develop a digitized trial version of their Citizens’ Budget, the objective of which is to sustain the development of international standards of transparency and to promote openness among ministries with the public.

The session included a breakdown of the approved 2022 General Budget in terms of revenues, expenditures, deficit, general debt, arrears and social sector allocations. Focus was especially placed on the Ministry of Social Development and Ministry of Labor’s budgets and the challenges hindering the general budget in achieving its 2022 goals. It also addressed the financial obligations of decision-making centers in the social sector and the financial gaps that continue to increase and impact services. In addition, the participants discussed proposed alternatives for alleviating the government’s financial crisis.

The trial versions of both ministries’ digitized Citizens’ Budget were then presented as part of efforts to keep abreast with global experiments in this regard and contribute to cooperation among various decision-making centers, CSOs and research centers. In turn, this could promote involvement in a monitoring role over public spending, cooperation on bridging financial gaps in public expenditures and determining priorities within national efforts to alleviate the impact of the financial crisis.

Furthermore, digitizing citizens’ budgets will allow decision-making centers to remain up-to-date with the rapid changes in citizens’ needs, based on accurate fiscal information and numbers. It will also foster cooperation between the relevant parties in developing policies responsive to the needs of the various communities, especially marginalized sectors.

The session, held in cooperation with UNDP, falls in line with MIFTAH’s approaches and efforts to impact public policies towards the protection of citizens’ rights and guaranteeing social justice and equality in the development of public policies, in addition to promoting good governance in Palestine.

 
 
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